After Vogue declared that having a boyfriend in 2025 is embarrassing, I began to think about how we should celebrate this year. Is 2026’s Valentine’s Day going to be embarrassing?
Typically, I celebrate Galentines day with my girls, but this year I have a Valentine. That has made me realize that now more than ever, we need to celebrate Heart Day with the people we love — whether it’s a man, woman or multiple people, take advantage of the day of love to celebrate with those who make life worth living.
Here is a list of my favorite activities that hopefully inspire you to take initiative and take on Valentine’s with your loved ones!
My first idea is a pizza-making night. I have made pizzas with my family plenty of times throughout my childhood. It’s super easy, all you need is pizza dough, marinara sauce and cheese. You can add any toppings you like, or personalize the pizzas with alfredo sauce instead of marinara. You can even shape the dough into hearts! If you bought a premade pizza crust, don’t worry, you can also cut it into hearts.
My next idea fits right in with this: spending a cozy night in with your people, making the raspberry thumbprint cookies, but instead of making a thumbprint indentation, you should make a heart indentation. These cookies are super easy to make and very aesthetically pleasing. You can search up any recipe on Pinterest and follow it.
If you plan on staying in with your loved ones, embrace your inner grandma and pull out all of your craft supplies. Bring out the construction paper, markers, stickers, paper doilies, scissors and glue. You can make cards for the people around you or try to replicate some cute ones from Pinterest. It’s a great way to relieve stress from midterms, and it’s really fun. You and your friends can exchange these cards like we used to in elementary school. If you aren’t planning on staying in, you can make a bunch of cards and pass them out when you go out on February 14th. Glitter and pink pens can also be used to make heart-shaped notes to tell the people around you that you appreciate them.
If you and your girls are going out or staying with you, you should plan to make your own bouquet night. You all can bring a type of flower and set up a station with scissors and ribbon. You all take one flower from the variety on the table to set up your bouquet. If you’re going out, these would be the perfect addition to your Instagram photo dump.
If you want to end the night with a sweet treat, you can buy a cute cake or bake one, and use glass wine cups to cut it. Thus, giving you an aesthetically pleasing video of you and your friends destroying a cake, but also the perfect sweet treat. Or if you are feeling a little more advanced, you can melt some chocolate and grab some strawberries to make chocolate-covered strawberries. You can use colored chocolate, sprinkles and edible glitter to decorate them. It’s very easy and yummy.
My last idea is making the viral TikTok paper chain if you are hosting or just feel like being in the Valentine’s Day vibes. I know it’s been around forever because we used to make them in elementary school, but it’s so easy to make, and it adds a bit of whimsy to your space.
It’s time that as a society we remember what’s important to celebrate love because it is more powerful than hate. So even if you are not too keen on the idea of the day of love, try to show appreciation for those who have supported you and love you daily.
Valentine’s Day may not be for everyone! You may think it’s embarrassing, too pink or consumer-heavy. Regardless of whether you love or hate it, the world needs more love, especially now more than ever!