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When I was a little girl, I adored Valentines Day. It was a big hoo-hah at my school. In art class we made cards for our crushes, badly painted paper maché hearts haphazardly glued onto some thick card, a liberal squirt of glue and a healthy sprinkling of glitter, "I love you" followed by a huge big question mark in place of a signature crayoned inside. The the most spine tingling time came when all the boys left the classroom for 2 minutes and the girls slipped their handmade declarations of love into their chosen boy's desk, then we swapped over and the boys put their cards into their chosen sweethearts desk. Ooooh the thrill of actually receiving an card from someone… it was beyond exciting for my 7 year old heart to cope with. This then continued being central to my universe for weeks afterwards as my little girlie friends and I try to work out who sent what to who. (Yes, I was an easily entertained 7 year old!)
Fast forward a few decades and I am now the world's biggest cynic when it comes to Valentines Day. My lovely husband and I don't celebrate it at all. No cards, no roses, no chocolates (well, chocolate features in my life on most days so wouldn't count anyway). To me, this kind of enforced romance on a certain day of the year is the least romantic thing you could do. It means so much more to me when lovely hubby turns up with a bag of Maltesers, leaves a silly drawing for me to find or makes my favourite meal as a surprise. In my mind it's those little things that truly mean I am loved and have been thought about. Receiving a card and a bunch of overpriced flowers on the same day that a million other women are receiving the same card and the same bunch of overpriced flowers really is not romantic at all. Am I wrong?
The looks of horror I receive from some of my female friends when I tell them I don't believe in Valentines Day is quite amusing, but funnier still are the looks of admiration I receive off my male friends and colleagues when I impart my cynical opinion to them. This only serves to reinforce my belief that those choccies and flowers have not been bought with love, they've been bought under pressure and probably with a lot of eye rolling and tutting. Again, not too high on the old lurve-o-meter!
I'm sure that many of the loved up people around the world will disagree with me, but I just feel that Valentines Day has turned into a big fat marketing event, heavily promoted by greeting card shops, florists and anywhere that is trying to get you to buy their food be it a restaurant or supermarket. With the possible exception of Mothers Day (don't even get me started on that one), Valentines Day is the busiest day of the year for most restaurants. With the exception of Christmas, Valentines Day is a peak season moment for card shops.
As someone who makes their living from the world of marketing maybe I shouldn't be saying all this? But I don't feel that love is a product that should be marketed for one day only. Surely it should be promoted as an all-year round thing? Isn't it better to tell those lucky people that mean something to you that you love them every day?
Personally i'll take the occasional surprise bag of Maltesers over a dodgy bunch of flowers from a petrol station forecourt any day!
