I've never been one to celebrate Valentine's Day [1]. In past relationships, I didn't need to be totally swept off my feet, and in the 10 years my husband and I have been married [2], I think we've celebrated once. To me, it's a bit of a hallmark holiday that tends to make some people feel sad, and I just couldn't get into all of the sappiness. That is, until I had kids.
Our house looks a little obnoxious and definitely not Joanna Gaines-approved, but it's exactly the way I like it.
Now it feels like we celebrate the holiday [3] throughout the entire month of February. The first thing we do to kick-start the month of love is decorate the house [4] (with almost as much enthusiasm as we do for Christmas), and it's a tradition I can't get enough of.
Now that my children are 6 and 4, we have a pretty hefty stash of crafts specifically geared toward Valentine's Day [5]. They've made little love ladybugs, cows, bunnies, and hearts over the years that I just can't part with. Instead, each year, we dig out all the goodies and I let the kids place them around the house. On the walls, fireplace mantel, and doors, you'll find little Valentine's Day creations [6] made out of pink and red construction paper, paper plates, and even toilet paper rolls. Our house looks a little obnoxious and definitely not Joanna Gaines-approved in February, but it's exactly the way I like it. It brings a little cheer to our mid-Winter blues, and we don't stop there, either.
If you can get into the Dollar Store ahead of time, you can score some pretty fantastic finds before they're picked over. I like taking the kids, too, because they have so much fun picking out a few knick-knacks to decorate the house with. Plus, because I'm a sucker for crafts, they usually have all the supplies we need for my kids to continue making their annual art projects, which I then add to the bin for next year when the holiday is over. It's a little family tradition [7] we started that they look forward to.
While my husband and I still don't regularly celebrate Valentine's Day just the two of us [9], we now celebrate together as a family. To see my kids' faces light up each year fills me with all that sappy love I used to hate about the holiday. By decorating almost every inch of the walls [10] with crafts from years past, the love blooms within our home. And while that's ever so cheesy, it couldn't make us happier.