Reflections on Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is one of those occasions that you either love or loathe. I've found most men aren't terribly keen, although this may be more a reflection on me than on them, come to think of it. Oh dear. Anyway, I've always thought that this loathing related to people resenting being pushed around. This has always made some kind of sense to me, but then again I also quite like the idea of reluctant romantics having to just pull their fingers out and make a bloomin' effort for once. And I don't mean reluctant romantics who are shy, I mean those who can't think what to get their wives for their birthday and buy them a Dyson or an iron.

The one thing I hate hearing about Valentine's Day is "oh, it's just invented by Hallmark to sell more cards". That annoys me for two reasons. First, it's not true. The relation of St Valentine to the concept of romantic love apparently originated with Geoffrey Chaucer and his various cohorts in the middle ages. And cards become popular in the 19th century. I don't think Hallmark was founded then, but to be fair, it seems good business practice to identify a money-making opportunity and go after it. I wish I'd been Mr Hallmark and thought of that - apparently there are now around a billion Valentine's cards sent every year - a small percentage of the revenue from that would suit me quite nicely. The second reason why that complaint annoys me is that if you're so against buying a commercial card then use your creative nous and do something else - make your own, write a romantic letter, write a poem, serenade your loved one with a song. Anything'll do! And those things are all low cost or free. Just don't use the "I hate card companies" as an excuse to be lazy.

The difficulty of course is that those whose partners ignore Valentine's day are bound to be disappointed or annoyed, even if they won't admit it. Fending off questions like "what did you get for Valentine's Day?" or "do anything nice on Valentine's Day?" just makes you feel like a bit of a schmuck. Luckily I'm not in the that boat. I ask three things of Husbandio on Valentine's day: that he remember without being reminded, that I get a card, and that some kind of chocolate product is purchased. Flowers I'm not fussed by since he's very good at buying those at other times, usually when I'm not expecting them at all, which is lovely. And he's right that any flower seller raises their price massively a couple of days before Valentine's Day and, unlike cards, creating your flowers can be tricky. This year was lovely - Isabel and I spent yesterday making cards and decorating them with glitter pens, stickers and hearts, and the required chocolate products were indeed forthcoming for all of us. An afternoon of chocolate sweats ensued, but it was worth it! So I guess that my conclusions on Valentine's Day are:

• Don't take it too seriously, or you'll eventually be disappointed
• Use it as a nice occasion to say the stuff you should probably say more often, but don't, for whatever reason (i.e. just because you're British!)
• Enjoy the chocolate that, IMO, should be an integral part of the day
  

P.S. I love you Husbandio. See, that wasn't too hard was it?