Select Valentine’s gifts for children that reflect the message of friendship and love.

Valentine’s Day can be a very meaningful holiday for young children.  This day isn’t just about love and romance; the holiday can be a powerful reminder about the value of kindness, generosity, and friendship in our lives. Valentine’s Day is a wonderful opportunity to teach children positive, life-long lessons about caring for others. Plan your Valentine’s Day activities with this concept in mind, and take the time to select Valentine’s Day gifts for children that will reflect the appropriate message.

What Gifts can we give them?

Many children love to create arts and crafts projects.  Before this special day, you may wish to purchase paints, construction paper, glue, glitter, stickers, stamps, and doilies as Valentine’s Day gifts for children. 

Encourage your young ones to create colorful cards.  Teach children the value of showing appreciation for others by giving handmade cards with personalized messages to their friends, classmates, teachers, babysitters, and relatives. 

Inexpensive but Valuable Gifts for Children

Remember, one of the most meaningful Valentine’s Day gifts for children is the gift of a parent or caretaker’s time.  Make time in your schedule to help your child prepare for this love month with cards, baked goods, and other handmade decorations.

One particularly fun, unusual, but simple and inexpensive Valentine’s Day card craft project is a card with a cutout aluminum foil heart.  For this project, children will need a blank construction paper card, glue, a thin paintbrush, newspaper, and a piece of standard kitchen foil.  Instruct children to lay the foil shiny side down on a folded newspaper.  Using the end of a paintbrush, press firmly to draw a design in the foil.  Be careful not to press too hard or the foil may rip!  Trim around the outside of the design in the shape of a heart.  Glue the foil heart, shiny side up, to the front of a card. 

If your child is a reader, consider purchasing themed books as Valentine’s Day gifts for children.  For instance, the book The Story of Valentine’s Day was written by Nancy Skarmeas and illustrated by Stacy Pickett-Venturi. This book teaches children the historically accurate background of Valentine’s Day, starting with the kindly Saint Valentine, who cared for the children of Rome, and explains why this saint is recognized on February 14th.  Other suitable children’s books include Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli and Roses Are Pink. Other books are quite entertaining such as Your Feet Really Stink, by Diane Degroat. 

Consider a gift basket

On this special day, surprise your child with a gift a basket!  When a child is in the spirit of celebrating the Valentine’s holiday, there is no greater joy than watching them discover their own special Valentines. 

As you prepare a gift basket, some great suggestions for Valentine’s Day gifts for children include stuffed animals, homemade cookies, candies, personalized charm bracelets, small jewelry and trinkets, arts and crafts items, colorful school supplies such as pens, pencils, pencil sharpeners, erasers and notebooks, games, and puzzles, word games such as mad libs, comic books, paperback books, small children’s toys such as silly putty, legos, dolls, action figures, transformers, and even small high-tech gifts such as earphones, iPods, video games, flash drives, DVDs and music CDs. 

How about gift certificates?

Gift certificates are another great item to include in gift baskets brimming with Valentine’s Day gifts for children.  Select age-appropriate gift certificates, such as a gift certificate for their favorite pizza restaurant, ice cream shop, miniature golf course, bowling alley, or movie theater, or even gift certificates for iTunes or Webkinz.  

Last but certainly not least, don’t forget to select an extra special Valentine’s Day card for your child!