My wife and I go out the day before so we don't have to fight the crowds.

I am taking my wife out to eat Saturday and then overnight at a cabin without the kids!

Well, personally I look forward to February 15th when all the valentine's day chocolates are on sale.

great idea! btw, does it still count if you go out the day after valentines day? hmmm..

clearly you are a true romantic. nice job.

YES!

I bust out Valentines day on my wife randomly through out the year. My wife now could care less about V-day. I will not have a calender tell me when to do something special. Rick McKinley might call it a Valentine Conspiracy.

me too!

We have a different challenge. Our anniversary is Feburary 12. Twenty-seven years ago I thought it was a good idea (easy for hubs to remember at least one of these special days, right?) but now it's hard to fight through the crowds. So we do a joint celebration “around” these two days. Sometimes before, sometimes after. Usually it's very low key though.

Exactly Jimmy. I used to be a contrarian on V-day but then thought, “wait, then I shouldn't really be celebrating Christmas since that's just a contrived one day celebration that didn't really happen on 12/25 and I should celebrate year round!” We ptich the Advent Conspiracy but still buy the tree and the gifts and go to the Christmas service at church for the first love of our lives, but we can't do the same for the second love of our lives?

So I swallowed the negativity, fought the cool-to-be-contrarian streak that runs so wide inside me, wrestled to the ground the urge to not let past relationship hurts be past, and embraced the observance and 1800flowers.com did the rest.

I'd like to be that guy that says, “We don't need to celebrate Valentine's Day, because we celebrate it everyday”, but it's more of a we just don't like the crowds, and having to expect something from each other.

We just kind of say, “Meh” to Valentine's Day.

(I feel like I should mention that we DO love eachother and enjoy eachothers' company lol. We'll probably celebrate it on our time and not the calendar's.)

we usually do dinner with the fam. if this is your “big night”…that's o.k….but i don't care much for the gross materialism that retailers have with holidays…and the t.v. commercials that make you sleepwalk to a jewelry story…

oooh!good one!

i love the “portable” valentine idea

let me just add that like Mike's story…my wife Sharon and I have experienced the ugliness of trying to get a table somewhere, to trying to rush from work to home to wait for the sitter …i've been married 17 yrs and we decide what to do, and i buy flowers all the time…

My wife's birthday is 2 weeks before Valentine's day. Coupled with that and the holiday madness we just got through in Nov/Dec, we're all holiday'd out.

Granted, this is no excuse for her to not receive chocolate

Julie and I are going to see Donny and Marie this evening, then to Ruth's Chris on Saturday night.

Excellent! Julie gets flowers on a random schedule, too

ruth's chris rocks! can i come

We dont do Valentine's Day. I would much rather my husband love me on any ol day of the week instead of being forced to express his love for me on a certain day. I am also tarnished by parents who owned a Hallmark store and how we were encouraged by Hallmark to sell more product . Totally against bosses day and grandparents day too for the same reasons. All made up to sell merch.

Lori, what about Father's Day and Mother's Day? Do you skip those too? Just wondering since those are merch holidays as well.

I know. Just another sneaky tip….Easter Monday is a great bargain day for chocolate too!

So what you're telling me Cindy, is if I should get married, it would be a good idea not to get married around the Valentine's Day period if possible?

my wife is at the mardi gras outreach (answering the cries) so i'll be without her on v-day. so…i'll be eating a tub of ice cream by myself. just kidding we'll probably have a phone date!

that would be tough to enjoy holidays after knowing what you know…i totally get that.

Very fair question and yes we celebrate mothers and fathers day but no we dont spend money on it. The kids make a popsicle frame with their picture in school and that is the extent of our gifts. We honor our grandparents on Mothers and Fathers day and they too get something the kids make. Our family has a running joke that when ever we are in the mall or a card store we pick up a card and show the other person and say “this is your card” and read it then put it back. My mom and dad even do it to each other.

Well, my birthday is the 2nd, my husband's is the 17th, and then we have Valentine's Day? No hot dates here. It's just too much hassle for us. We normally do one outing to sum up everything.

Well, if you like flowers and restaurants, they are usually cheaper and less crowded other times during the year.

F hl

No thanks for me. No expectations, but being intentional about just showing my husband how much I love him. Blogged about this this morning, too.