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Valentine’s Day is devoted to the celebration of romance, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a fun celebration for the entire family. For the most part children merely have a small party at their public school celebrating Valentine’s Day by giving and receiving cute kid friendly Valentine’s cards. However, there is so much fun this holiday can bring to your home for the entire family.

We all love our kids, and show them affection every day. Valentine’s Day not only celebrates this, but is also a way to have your kids express their love for other people and family members. Even if it’s just in the form of home-made cards, you can teach them the art of giving to others in the form of crafts and baking. Here are some fun ways to celebrate this holiday with your children and family.

Decorating

Decorating your home will bring the excitement of the holiday out in the open. To get you and your children motivated and raring to decorate the house start with some fun music. Set up a decoration layout of your entire house, pinpointing how you will be decorating each room. Have your children help you layout these designs.

One fun decoration that children will love to help you make is heart mobiles.

Supplies Needed:

  • 1/4 inch ribbon in pink, white or red
  • Red or pink construction paper
  • Elmer’s glue
  • Cookie cutters or prepared heart shapes.
  • Glitter

Start by cutting out small, medium, and large hearts using the colored construction paper. Allow your children to help decorate the hearts using glitter or other valentine’s décor. Cut the 1/4 inch ribbon in strips that are about one to two feet in length, depending on the height of your ceiling. Glue the hearts on the ribbons in various sizes from the top to the bottom. Hang your mobiles from the ceiling all around the house.

Baking

Baking is a great bonding time for you and your children, and it can also teach them some life-long lessons. You can actually get your entire family involved in baking by giving each member of the family a job to do. Have one member gather all the ingredients, another keep the directions and another to help mix and combine the ingredients.

Cupcakes baked goods that are associated with and used to celebrate a number of holidays. Here are some fun variations of cute and different valentine day cupcakes for you and your children to have fun with. Start with your favorite flavor cake mix that can be found at any grocery store. Use the recipe found on the box of the cake mix to make your cupcakes. Be sure to cool them completely before decorating.

Heart in the middle – Punch a small heart shape in the middle of your cupcake and fill it with pink or red frosting.

Hearts on Top – Frost your cupcakes using no tip on a frosting bag; make a swirl movement around the entire cupcake until you have an ice cream cone topping of frosting. Add a conversational heart candy on top of the tip of the cone and allow your children to add valentine day candy sprinkles.

Make Pop-up Valentines Cards

Valentine’s cards can be made to either give out to family members or if your children would like to make their own valentine’s cards for their school party. Here are some fun pop-up valentine cards you can make together.

Supplies:

  • Red, pink and white construction paper
  • Scissors
  • Elmer’s glue
  • A marker or pen
  • Glitter or your child’s favorite decorating supplies.

Create various designs of hearts or other favorite symbols out of white, red, and/or pink construction paper. Take one piece of construction paper and fold it in half, cut the fold if this is for school and fold an additional time to make smaller cards. On the bottom half of your folded paper, cut small strips out of the middle and variously on the bottom half of the cards. Fold the cut strips toward you. Glue the pieces of the hearts, or other symbols you created, on the strips. Make sure that each symbol is glued on the strip in a way that it will pop up when you open up the top of the card.

Family Outing

Family outings are a great way to celebrate the valentine holiday and share some outdoor fun. There are a number of holiday celebrations that are happening in your local community. Your local newspaper or news stations websites are a great resource for finding local happenings.

Some ideas for a fun-filled family outing include:

  • Going for a neighborhood bike ride
  • Taking a scenic stroll through the park and learning about all the trees and plants housed there.
  • Have a fun scavenger hunt
  • Go on a treasure hunt at garage sales or second hand stores.
  • Have a fun bowling night
  • Try roller skating or Ice skating together

Story Time

No matter what age your children are story time is a great time for children to relax and unwind after a long exciting day. For Valentine’s Day it can be a fun time to tell personal love stories that you know. Share the story of how your parent’s met and fell in love or how you and your spouse met and fell in love. Children love to hear personal stories that are related to them or the people in their life.

For younger children you can check with your local library to see what stories will be read over the valentine holiday.

There is so much fun to be had with your children over the valentine’s holiday. It’s a great way to shower them with love and have some special bonding time, share laughter, and have a blast together.

By Chris Molnar, a freelance writer and stay at home Dad with two preschool girls. Chris is editor of a party site with craft ideas and tips, which you can view here. You can also find a Valentine’s day party for kids, which he had a lot of fun planning!