Valentine's Day is not just for couples in love. Children enjoy this occasion not only for the sweet treats but also because of the pretty decorations that can stimulate their cheerful nature. This holiday is a great chance for us to let them experience the beauty of celebrating love and friendship. Make the occasion extra special by making it extra fun!
Forget the flowers
Instead of buying or picking flowers from your garden, try origami paper crafts. Create a bouquet of flowers or fill a vase with paper hearts for your table centerpiece. You can also make an origami mobile that consists of red cranes, flowers, and hearts. Ask the kids to help you out or set up a station where you can supervise them as they work on their creativity.
Table Setting
If you don't have a special table runner for Valentine's Day, wrapping papers can do the trick. Choose a colorful Valentine wrapping paper, lay it across the table, and cut the edges using a pair of scissors with scalloped edges. Add some small boxes covered in the same paper for accent. Don't forget to tie a pretty red ribbon around them to bring out the lovely design of your paper table runner.
Aside from the small wrapped boxes, you can also use candies in red wrappers as accents. Spread these red candies around the table along with some red and pink paper hearts.
Valentine Activities
Now that you have set up a kid-friendly venue for V-day, you have to keep up with the "fun" in your theme. Here are some activities to keep them busy with while you're preparing their meal.
Cookie Decorating
The best activities for children are the ones that fuel their creativity. Through cookie decorating, you're hitting several birds with one stone.
First, it teaches kids to be patient and lets them practice self-control by not eating their creations until they are done. Second, they can express themselves and you get to know them better through their designs. Third, it makes them creative!
A cookie decorating activity is easy to organize. You only need basic sugar cookies in various shapes and sizes, some pastry bags with red, pink and white icing, and of course, the children's imagination! Don't forget to take a picture of the kids' cookie creations before they go... omnonomnom!
If you have small kids who can't properly hold a pastry bag yet, you can organize a Heart Hunt wherein they just need to find the paper hearts that you hid around the house. At the end of the party, the child with the most hearts collected gets a special prize!
Remember, you don't have to buy everything. The items you need may just be in your attic or even in your garage. If you have a picture in mind of how you want your kids' Valentine's Day table to look, break it down and number the items that you need to buy as well as those you can actually recycle from home.
Valentine's Day doesn't have to be a seriously romantic occasion. Love comes in a wide variety of forms and it's only reasonable to include children in this celebration because their love is unconditional and irreplaceable.
Jessica Phan is a designer for Balsamhill.com a purveyor of high-end artificial Christmas Trees. Living in the San Francisco Bay Area is perfect for her because she has a wide range of interests, including Art & Design, Fashion, Photography, Painting and Thrift Store Shopping.
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