Our Valentine's Day Tradition: To Not Celebrate

That's right - my husband and I do not celebrate Valentine's Day. It's been our tradition during most of the time we've been married. No, it's not because we think it's a pagan holiday. It's not because we think Cupid is stupid. And it's not because we don't love each other. It's a matter of logic, really.

My birthday is eleven days before Valentine's Day and his birthday is seven days after. We do nice things for each other on our birthdays, we go out to eat, we buy nice gifts or we surprise each other with birthday cakes or other goodies. Why spend even more money to express the same sentiments that we express on our birthdays?

I don't need ridiculously expensive red roses and I certainly don't need more chocolate! My husband is not crazy for cards nor is he crazy about boxer shorts with hearts on them. So we skip it. And it's fine with us, it really is.

This isn't to say I've never celebrated Valentine's Day. In fact, I have helped my daughter celebrate the special day since they always have parties in school. I've even helped her make her own Valentine box.

Instead of buying the valentines cards at school, we usually just made our own. One year, we made cards that said, "You blow my mind Valentine" and attached a balloon inside. Of course it wasn't blown up! We never gave candy because I always figured the kids would get enough candy from each other.

Even though I went along with the school's tradition of having a Valentine's Day party for my daughter's sake, I never really completely understood why kids had to give each other cards. When I was in school I thought it was sort of weird to be reading a little card that said, "be mine" when it was from the kid in my class I hated the most.

The older I got, the more embarrassing it became to give and receive valentines. But then all of the sudden in junior high it wasn't a requirement to send these hokey little cards and candy hearts to classmates. Sending a valentine became an option. And when I saw all the popular kids getting valentine balloons and flowers it didn't make me feel too good. I came to hate Valentine's Day. Until one day I did receive some balloons. I was so excited to find out if they were from the guy I had a huge crush on but was deflated when I found out they were just from my mom. Not that I didn't appreciate the gesture but it just wasn't the same as getting them from some the guy I liked or some secret admirer.

There have been a few memorable Valentine's Day in my life. One year, my college roomie and I made dinner for our then boyfriends. The dessert was a heart-shaped cake but the thing they remembered the most was the pink mashed potatoes!

Another year, I gave my then boyfriend a great Valentine's Day card and his favorite candy. I waited and waited all day for his gift to me. And at the end of the day when I got nothing, he claimed he forgot it was Valentine's Day. Whatever!

When I lived in North Carolina, the Singles Ministry at church held a banquet on Valentine's Day to celebrate being single. It's strange that when you're single all you want to do is be married and when you're married, there are some days you wouldn't mind being single again!

Besides those Valentine events, I really honestly can't remember any other Valentine's Days. So as you can see, Valentine's Day has never been a big deal for me. And since Valentine's Day lands smack dab in the middle of our birthdays is creates a great excuse for us not to celebrate it.

If you think I'm odd for not celebrating Valentine's Day, I'd like to point out that according to an article in The Washington Post, fewer people are celebrating the lovey-dovey day.

Part of it is due to the economy but another part is because of the declining marriage rate and the increasing numbers of people living alone.

Some other reasons for not celebrating Valentine's Day include:

• Some people are allergic to flowers
• All that chocolate and candy isn't good for you
• It's overly commercialized
• You have way too many cards already and don't know what to do with them all
• It was originally a pagan tradition celebrated on the day two Catholic saints were executed

So what about you? Do you have a reason for not celebrating Valentine's Day? Do you feel obligated to celebrate it even if you don't like it? If you LOVE Valentine's Day and sappy love songs, be sure to check Lionel Richie and Diana Ross singing one of the top 50 love songs of all time!