Valentine’s Day is approaching, and you need to get busy! Planning something great takes time, and you don’t want to wait until the last minute. If you’re stuck on Valentine’s Day gift ideas and don’t want to re-visit last year’s dinner-and-a-movie theme, take a few minutes to check out these fun and fresh ideas!
Valentine’s Day Breakfast
Surprise your partner with a Valentine’s Day breakfast. If you can, call in for your sweetie (or arrange the day off beforehand without your partner’s knowledge) and wake them up with your special breakfast in bed. If they absolutely can’t get out of work, make the effort to have it ready about a half hour earlier than they typically wake up.
Some great suggestions for a breakfast would be red and food colored anything, but why not whip up a batch of heart shaped pancakes? These are super simple – just pour your normal pancake batter into a heart shape (you don’t need a special pan or anything) and flip. Voila! Top with whipped cream and strawberries.
Homemade Fortune Cookies
These are a super sweet and personalized Valentine’s Day idea that is incredibly inexpensive! You may have to spend a few bucks if you don’t have a pantry stocked with the normal baking goods, but this is still by far one of the most creative yet inexpensive Valentine’s Day gift ideas that ever existed. Search for videos on how to make them (many people have posted video walk throughs of how to make fortune cookies on popular video sharing websites) and have a crack at it while your partner is out of town.
Type out some personal fortunes and print them out, cutting them to the size of a normal fortune. If you need bigger, just fold it in half when you put it in the cookie. Another special touch would be tinting the batter with pink or red food coloring, or dipping them in chocolate and Valentine’s Day sprinkles after the cookies are cooked and firm. Wrap them up in a nice box and tissue paper and you’ve got a really special gift that didn’t cost hardly anything!
Love Coupons
Don’t underestimate the power of love coupons! These again, are really ridiculously inexpensive, but are worth their weight in gold if you actually follow through with them. Read: you absolutely have to follow through with them. Love coupons are worthless if you’ve done it before and either complained or didn’t do what you had promised to do when your partner “cashed in” their coupon.
If you’re into graphic design at all (heck, even if you aren’t, there are tons of free clip art pictures and fonts you can use), create something really visually intriguing and personalized. Put your lover’s name on them. Sign your name. Be creative! Just make sure that when your partner does cash in their coupons, that you do what it says on the coupon with a smile on your face!
Handmade Chocolates
If you’re going to do chocolates for Valentine’s Day, do them right. Don’t buy a box of Russell Stover from your local Walgreens and expect it to go over well. It won’t. Why not try your hand at making homemade chocolates?
This is actually quite easy to do and you can find a ton of recipes online. While you might think that making truffles and caramels are out of your reach, they’re really not. And making them yourself will be so much more special than buying a box – and they’ll be more delicious! You can personalize them by piping your love’s initials on the chocolates, or using her favorite flavors. If you’re really into it, try creating some decadent confections such as champagne truffles or tuxedo strawberries.
Re-Do The Bedroom
If sex is going to be the big thing on Valentine’s Day, try re-doing the bedroom to give it a great Valentine’s Day look and feel. Buy some red or pink sheets and bedding and re-do the bed. Have bouquets all around, or rose petals covering as many surfaces as possible. Many florists will sell bags of petals that have fallen off the buds for a discounted price.
You can also have a bag of balloons inflated and tie really long, curly ribbon to them. The balloons will float up to the ceiling and the curly ribbon will hang down, making your lover feel like they’re in a Valentine’s Day wonderland. Pair all these ideas together and you’ve got a bedroom makeover that will make your lover’s jaw drop!
Valentine’s Day Gift Basket
A pre-made gift basket is not where you want to go on this one. This is another homemade Valentine’s Day gift idea, but it’s actually really easy to put together. Figure out a “theme” for your gift basket. If you’re going sexy, make a gift basket out of sex toys, lubes, candies and lingerie! If you’ve got a “lovey-dovey” theme going, fill your basket with chocolates, strawberries, champagne and photos of you and your honey.
A gift basket can be anything you want it to be! Just use your imagination. Some things to keep in mind though to keep it from being lackluster are:
- Get a big basket. A rinky dinky one just won’t do.
- Do not underestimate the power of tissue paper and paper crinkles as a filler.
- Color coordinate. Yeah, it’s lame. But they’ll love it.
- Make sure to wrap the outside with gift basket wrap and a big Valentine’s Day bow to complete the look! Better yet, attach a bouquet of balloons to the top.