Valentine’s Day presents? See: any other gift-giving event with additional emphasis on hearts and pink/red wrapping paper.
If your partner likes flowers, give flowers. If your partner likes model trains, give model trains. Done.
But, maybe I am advising for the wrong audience. After all, why read a “Valentine’s Day Gifts Guide,” if you have already mastered gift-giving? So for those of you want — and perhaps need — it, we’ll start with the basics.
Gift-giving involves a combination of playing to your recipient’s interests and to your strengths. Find out what your partner (or really any person you would like to give a gift to) likes by listening when they mention something they like, observing what they seem to enjoy, or even simply asking them (outrageous, I know).
Then, incorporate those interests into your skills. You can cook? Cook a favorite meal; add candles for romance — as ambiance, not an ingredient. You have connections or the ability to buy tickets to a show, sporting event or movie? Go to a favorite ) performance event. You can art? Art something that your special someone will enjoy.
Valentine’s Day is an emotion-oriented (rather than gift-oriented, see: a ten-year-old’s birthday) holiday. Your gift should say something, be it “I love you” or “I experience positive feelings in your direction.” Give or do something that says what you want to say, or take the decidedly less romantic route of just buying a greeting card that says it for you (not a real option).
Regardless, gifts, particularly on Valentine’s Day, are not about price, nor about how well they adhere to an ever increasing, advertising-induced, materialistic culture, they are about expressing care for someone you care for. Do that, and you can’t go wrong.
