Looking for Ideas to Celebrate Valentines Day as a Family

There are quite a few ideas for Valentine's Day family activities on my website:
http://www.winmarkcom.com/valentinecelebrations.htm
http://www.winmarkcom.com/valentineactivities.htm
http://www.winmarkcom.com/valentinecraft.htm
Enjoy,
K.

Hi K.,
I'd keep the day simple and focus on quality time. Kids love activities that break a norm . . . so do some things they wouldn't expect in honor of the special day.
1. Family slumber party in the living room complete with goodies and movies the night before VD to get eveyone "in the mood" for the special day.
2. How about chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream for breakfast. I add cocoa to the regular batter and then sprinkle chips on right after I pour the batter in the pan.
Then top with whipped cream and more chips, red sprinkles, too! I use mini chips. This is a family favorite for VD and Father's Day (dad loves them so much)
3. Have them all wear, red, pink, white, and purple for the day.
4. I'd keep the evening meal something that's a famiy favorite . . . but we did heart shaped homemade pizza using dough from Basha's and it was fun Dessert could be a "make your own" sundae bar.
5. I'd basically keep the day simple and focus on family time. Starting a few TRADITIONS you'll plan to keep forever will make the difference. Our son is 26 and still like to have those chocolate chip pancakes.
6. A candy heart hunt (inside the house) is fun, too! Have each child search for a certain color you've controlled. They have fun "keeping the secret" when they find someone else's color. Everyone gets a small prize if they find all the hearts. That way when someone finishes they can help those that are struggling. They ALL win when all the hearts are discovered.
Here's a website for great kid-friendly, family friendly ideas
http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/special/specialfeature/th...
Have a great day!

Here's something I found online for you:

A Family Valentine’s Day Tradition

Valentine’s Day is a day for ALL family members to show love and affection to each other - something that for siblings is not always easily done. Starting traditions and rituals for Valentine’s Day in your family will not only help children show positive feelings toward each other on this day, but hopefully it will spill over to other days as well.

Start with some Ground Rules
Let the children know that on Valentine's Day, certain behavior will not be acceptable. No teasing, no fighting, etc. This is a day to celebrate love, respect, and admiration. Also, if at all possible, don't do any punishing on this day. If something goes really wrong, perhaps you let the kids know that you will deal out any punishments AFTER Valentine's Day is over as you want everyone to be able to spend it together.
The Family Mailbox
Get a large box and with all family members help, decorate it for Valentine's Day. Use paper, ribbon, stickers, lace, and hearts galore. Make sure the box is closeable and openable and has a mail slot on the top of it. Add your family name to the box. Place it in a prominent area of your home, and within easy reach for small kids.

Making Cards
Everyone has to make everyone else a card. Keep a box filled with supplies - stickers, paper, glue, lace, ribbon, wrapping paper, crayons, markers, paint, ink, stampers, whatever you can put together. Let everyone know they must finish their cards for everyone by the 13th! That way there are no last minute cards put together sloppily because someone forgot. You might even want to write the deadline on the side of the supply box.
Each card must contain at least one nice, positive thought about the other family member. No negative thoughts are allowed. (You may have to read through the cards before passing them out, depending on how well your children get along!)
Since Valentines really are supposed to be anonymous, don't force your children to sign their names. This may also make it easier for them to right nice things about their siblings.

Have a Dinner Party
For dinner come up with a very "lovey" theme. Heart-shaped hamburgers, heart shaped cake, red punch, whatever you can think of. Use a heart cookie cutter to turn just about anything into a heart shaped food. After dinner, everyone can open their valentines. Make sure everyone gets a hug and kiss before bed!

I hope you get ideas from other people! My husband & I are planning to do the same w/our 2 kids for Valentine's Day. I think it will be so much nicer & memorable. I can't wait to hear ideas from other people! =)

Everyone can make eachother a homemade Valentine's day card and you can take turns reading them out loud.

Sounds like fun and I think we'll be doing something similar.

As for a theme for dinner... I think fondue would be fun. Your younger ones may have a harder time with it but it would be fun. Maybe just chocolate fondue for dessert with fruit, marshmellows, pound cake, etc for dipping. And cheese fondue is easy to make, too. Apples and bread go well with that. Check out cooks.com for recipes.

Have fun! Happy Valentines Day!
C.

One of my friends makes swiss steaks cut into the shape of hearts and makes mashed potatoes and tints them pink! Her four older kids look forward to it every year.

what about a tea party with the kids and daddy. i collect tea cups and pots . i do it becaue i remember looking at my granny's collection ( shich i eventually inherited after she died) , as a you child and not being able to touch them. my neice started doing the same thigns. staring longingly at the china cabinet and i pulled them out and we had a tea party. she is now 5 and every time she comes over we ahve a tea party and my husband joins us and really enjoys it ( mostly the food). i get cranberry or other fruit flavored teas. make cucumber and sour cream sandwchices and tea cakes and scones. yu can make it an all day thign like for breakfast everybody helps make red panckaes. thats what my kids call strwberry panckaes. just make regular pancakes and top them with strwberries and whipped cream. make something red for luch like tomato soup and somthign red for dinner. dad has to help too. make cards and maybe red frosted cookies for dessert

I like to cook a nicer dinner and we use the fine china to eat from. We also put candles on the table. My girls love it.

Last year, we played Candyland together. Every time you landed on one of the squares that represented a person (Queen Frostine, Princess Lolly etc.) they would get a conversation heart candy. It was a lot of fun.

This year, since my grandma will be here on Valentine's day, I made a mailbox and told the family that they can write as many letters to each other as they want but to remember to write some for Great Grandma too. We will read them during our Valentine's dinner.

Hope this gives you some ideas!

K.

You could make cookies or cupcakes and then have the family decorate one. Sprinkles, frosting, little hearts...then you can draw names to see who gets whose cupcake.

My kids are still pretty young (6 yr and 18 months) so I want to do a kissing tree this year (while they still like kissing mom and dad). We will hang pink paper hearts on a tree with numbers on them and red paper hearts with names on them. THen we will roll dice and whoever gets the highest number picks a pink and a red heart. Then they get the number of kisses on the pink heart from the person on the red heart.

my husband is away this year so we are celebrating as a family too. I'm going to get my children their own box of conversation hearts. We are making Valentine's for Grandparents and cousins. My mother-in-law made sugar cookies for each of her children as her valentine to them each year & my husband tried to keep that tradition. (It was a BIG cookie with their name on it.) We are going to make cookies for him this year and send them to him --not as big. ;)

Have fun whatever you do.

--R. J.