Planning for Valentine's Day: cards, crockery, fruit, shops, parties, restaurants

Problem
What do you do for Valentine's Day?

Answers
1 Stock up with heart shape crockery or heart shape cutters for celebrating at home.
2 Look for recipes for valentine's cakes, sandwiches, pink colours.
3 Book a restaurant for a twosome with your spouse, fiancee or loved one.
4 Find leftovers from last year at the back of your cupboards.
5 Download Valentine's cards to print or email messages and pictures.
6 Find pictures of previous Valentine's days for a collage of years of happiness together.
7 Organises a group celebration for a group of couples or couples and singles so that singles are included in an evening out.
8 Remember that in the USA Valentine's day encompasses love and affection for all sorts of people, not just romantic love and proposals of marriage. For example, children might make Valentine's Day cards at school and send Valentine's Day cards to teachers, fellow pupils and parents.
9 Look for reduced price goods the day after Valentine's Day for next year.
10 Wrap your leftover goods for next year in wrapping paper or a bag with a large red heart so it's easy located in your store room or attic. Photograph what you have in stock and where you have stored it. Label the photograph Valentine's day or email it to yourself and store in an email file marked photos or Valentine's.
11 Research the history of Valentine's Day and memories or plans if you are going to a Toastmasters International Club meeting where Valentine's will be theme of the evening in February.
12 Allow time to plan parties and meetings, and order goods online including clothes and hats and banners and paper ware.
13 If attending an event, look for colours to co-ordinate, such as reds and pinks.
14 If you forget - improvise clothes or cards by drawing a heart. You fold your stiff cloth or card in half and draw half and heart and cut the curve so both sides of the heart match. You can also use a heart from a website as a template to print and draw around it.
15 Heart shapes can be cut out of bread or any cake or tart. Or a red fruit such as a red apple. Mark a heart on the skin or a series of hearts and cut peel off the exposed areas.
16 Lonelyhearts: to avoid being alone on Valentine's Day: organise a group party. Alternatively visit a rural location or island or a Muslim country such as Malaysia or Saudi Arabia where Valentine's day is not celebrated or is vigorously banned.

Stories
1 When we lived in America we discovered that children had taken Valentine's cards and gifts to teachers. Our British child, not knowing anything about this, was embarrassed that we had not warned him. He came home from school with Valentine's Day cards for us.
2 One year in London, England, we spent Valentine's Day in an Indian restaurant surrounded by Indian couples. I think I was the only lady who was blonde and not wearing a saree. All the other restaurant's were fully booked weeks in advance and twice the price. It was different. Strange. Different. Curry for Valentine's Day.

Tips
1 Party shops in London stock supplies for Valentine's Day.
2 Supermarkets worldwide will stock cards, crockery, banners, balloons, and paper ware.
3 Department stores will have displays in windows, greeting card stands, confectionary and cake departments, and crockery departments.
3 List your favourite Valentine's Day websites and heart shape crockery manufacturers.

Read the Wikipedia article on the history of Valentine's day, which seems to have a lot to do with Chaucer, springtime, the change in the calendar, and the introduction of the penny stamp enabling people to send numerous anonymous cards. I was also fascinated by the differences around the world, such as of giving chocolate on one day and returning the favour another day (in Japan).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine's_Day
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please see my other posts and blogs and profiles on this subject and others on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram..