The National Retail Federation estimates that Americans spent $17.02 billion on gifts this year. That averages out to over $120 per person. Although the prediction was that couples will spend less money on the traditional chocolate and candy and opt more for weekend getaways or a night out.
If history follows suit, the jewelry business will be doing well. Last year, American jewelry stores sold $2.5 billion in the month of February.
This holiday totally amazes me each year on how fast the money goes. It starts innocently each year buying the valentine cards for my kids to hand out to their friends at school. It is very misleading the cards tend to run only about $2, but somehow by the time you get to the register, you have spent around the average. What happens?
If you are like our family, it happens in more than one trip. You go out to buy stuff for the kid's class party. Then you have the mailbox project sent home from school in which you stop at the craft store. Then there is the candy for the friends, coworkers. Buying more for the teachers, etc.
By the time you move to your own family, you wonder what happen to all the money. If you don't buy for your own family, you walk around with guilt as others judge you throughout the day.
I have married couple friends who refuse to celebrate Valentine's Day because they show each other their love for one another every day. This makes more sense to me, but everyone likes to feel special. Taking one day can make a difference.
This morning as I listened to the radio as singles and couples alike called in to discuss Valentine's Day and it what it meant to them, I realized that however inconsequential the holiday is-it is an amazing holiday that transforms relationships.
A woman called in and told a story that completely transformed my view of this holiday. It is a day that we spend a lot of money, but it is also a day to make someone we love feel special. The woman who called in told how Valentine's Day was her husband's favorite holiday. He would go over and beyond with flowers every year. She said it was a running joke in her family that the arrangements were more like funeral sprays. She commented to the d.j. that she always told him she could not wait until she died to see what her flowers looked like then. Her husband died at the age of 46. Fifteen years ago he died. She said she counts down the hours until Feb. 15 because she knows she has another year until the next one. She said the last year her husband was alive he gave her a tiny white vase with 12 small pink silk roses. She said she was upset at the time because it wasn't her normal "funeral spray" type of arrangement. Now she cherishes that gift.
It is stories like these that make the holiday what it is meant to be. Stories of engagements in which couples take that next step to a lifetime together, stories or weddings, stories of lost loves finding one another again, etc. are all part of the day.
Love is a lifetime of giving and this woman experienced it with her husband. Her memories live on in the holiday. The holiday transforms relationships. People walk around with just that loving feeling during the day.
The day is a day of romance, friendships and goodwill to one another. It is nice to have a day to once again celebrate love. So what are your thoughts this year? Is it worth the money? If not, how much money would it be worth to celebrate your love?
