3 Easy Steps to Homemade Valentine’s Day Gifts - Family Values Style. Discover your inner “hallmark”!
Uncover the "hallmark" in you.
Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching and there may be no better holiday to express the family value of love than on this day. I often wonder, however, what’s the difference between showing love on this day verses the rest of the year? Nothing. We should be showing love and appreciation every day but perhaps not in such an exaggerated form as on Valentine’s Day. The fact that Valentine’s Day is so close to the New Year can be an early reminder to show love frequently. But be careful, Valentine’s Day is not about buying items from a store to show love. It’s much more. For our purposes, I’ll focus on showing love creatively using 3 easy steps to homemade Valentine’s Day gifts – family value style. We all have an inner “hallmark” inside, we just need to search for it.
In my research for this blog, I learned that the history of Valentine’s Day stems back to a dark time in Roman history (if this peaked your curiosity, that is between you and Google). It has obviously taken on a much different meaning today – for some people, it is celebrated singularly, such as buying oneself flowers are going out to dinner solo; for others, it may be recognized as Galentine – an opportunity to appreciate your pack of tried and true friends; perhaps most traditionally, it is a time when lovers express their affection with greetings and gifts. How can you stand out?
The inspiration – step 1
You don’t need to have a strong imaginative side to be creative. Let your guard down – be vulnerable, push down the need for perfection, and do something fun that is fueled by love. The best homemade gifts are ones that are less than perfect. I do, however, understand the struggle for ideas. I always say, as creative as Stephen King is as a writer, there must still have been some form of inspiration or truth to ignite his mind.
For inspiration, go to your local craft store. Bring a friend, family member or your children and just walk up and down the aisle. More likely than not, you will see something that will ignite your creativity. One year for Valentine’s Day, my two children and I walked each aisle of Michael’s craft store and it wasn’t until I got to the wood working section when I was inspired. I spotted an unfinished wooden clock. Between the three of us, we had an idea that was timeless. Our excitement quickly got the best of us and out of the store we went, paying of course. Once we got home, we all went into the basement to plan one of our most personally heartful Valentine’s Day gift for my wife and their mother.
The build – step 2
The three of us continued to work out our ideas and quickly began creating the design for the clock. This was our collaborative idea: for each hour, the kids created family activity icons and glued them on the hour mark. My son and daughter color coded their hours to provide them with a sense of identity and accomplishments. Using the simple instructions provided from the kit, I easily put together the hour and minute hands.
I cherish the time spent with my children remembering all of the memories we generated as a family. Of course, keeping it real – we had too many ideas and despite this being a “loving activity”, my kids found a way to fight with each other about which family activities to include. After a few failed attempts to find an inner peace, I was able to remind them why we were there and we found a compromise. As you can see from the picture above, one child owned hours 1 to 6 and the other 7 to 12. We were back on track with little time lost.
The presentation – step 3
After 24 hours of curing time, the clock was ready. It wasn’t fancy, but it was packed with memories, love and quality time. We wrapped it up and waited patiently until February 14. When the day came, our kids were excited to present their gift to their mother and what a presentation it was. After the initial gift giving presentation and my wife’s excitement, the kids immediately broke into who did what and what each icon meant etc. etc. etc. The clock still ticks in my wife’s workspace years later and continues to not only be a personal keepsake for her but also a conversation starter for those visiting her office.
The gratitude challenge
Valentine’s Day is not just for showing love and appreciation to loved ones. The tradition of passing out cards in classrooms indicates that children know this to be true but as adults we tend to forget that extension of the holiday. After all, when was the last time your bought or made and sent Valentine’s Day cards to your colleagues? Of course it would be fun (but maybe slightly weird) if you did sent all your adult acquaintances pre-packaged cards from CVS but instead, consider calling or texting one or two to let them what they mean to you. This idea leads right into my article called Gratitude Challenge: A Win-Win Family Value. Here I challenge all my readers to share their win-win moment with a goal of 100 shared gratitude moments on my website, www.alldadsondeck.com by June 1, 2021.
While LOVE was my family value in this article, please add a comment as to the family value you think about at Valentine’s Day? Discuss it with your family and place it on your Family Values Roadmap worksheet, downloadable as a free PDF on my site for free when you sign-up.
As always, please consider sharing my story with a friend or family member and ask them what would be their family value connection!
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I love and cherish homemade cards for all occasions and Valentine’s Day is no exception! Homemade cards and gifts show love and gratitude on a whole new level! Love this! I hope it inspires people to get creative together and truly feel the love! Thanks you for the reminder and extra inspiration and encouragement!