Happy Valentine’s Day!

“Even Blindfolded I Can Find My Way To Your Heart, Valentine!” 1949 Valentine’s Day Card

Recently, in cleaning out a closet, I ran across a scrapbook my mother kept growing up with cards she received at holidays and birthdays. By far the most were Valentine’s Day cards she had received, though there were Christmas cards, birthday cards, and invitations to her birthday party.

That picture is of one page of her scrapbook, from 1946 (80 years ago!) when my mom was about seven years old. At first, I was a little puzzled as to why there were so many more Valentine’s Day cards in the scrapbook than others, but I think it’s because my mom was an only child who only got so many “other” cards from family, but would always get a lot of Valentine’s Day cards at school parties.

(Valentines Day 1947)

I know when I was in grade school we would have a Valentine’s Day party and would walk around putting valentines in the construction paper envelopes/pockets we made and decorated earlier in the week taped to the front of every desk. We had to have a card for every person in our class (a good rule so no one felt left out — kids can be mean — but oh it could be difficult to pick out a card for that awful boy who was never nice to you, since you sure didn’t want to give him anything that said “I love you!” on it! EWWWW!).

(Valentines Day 1948)

I actually have a memory of shopping once with my mom trying to pick out my Valentine’s Day cards for the school party. I was torn between three different sets — a Peanuts theme set, a Flintstones theme set, and a generic animal set. They showed all the cards in the set on the back of the box so you could see what options you would have. Knowing me and my past struggles (😊), my mom pointed out that the Flintstones set had a card that did not say anything about love or be my valentine or anything like that which would work just fine for certain co-students Ha!

(Valentine’s Day 1946)

When my kids were in grade school they also had Valentine’s Day parties at school. Sometimes they would make cards, or other fun stuff (rather than buy a set of cards). One year we used red craft foam to cut out a pair of lips for the girls, brown craft foam to cut out mustaches for the boys, punched a hole in each and slid a Tootsie Pop through it, so that when a kid was eating the Tootsie Pop they would be “wearing” their “lips” or “mustache.”

(Valentine’s Day 1945)

All these parties also came with Valentine’s Day themed desserts like heart shaped cookies, Hershey’s kisses in pink and red foil, etc. I inherited a heart shaped pan from my mother-in-law and would usually do some kind of cake or brownie in it for us to have at home (I’m not a very creative person and was never one to come up with homemade decorations, etc., but even I can use a pan shaped in the form I want!). In fact, maybe I will do that today to take to church tomorrow!

(Valentine’s Day 1949)

Does anyone know if grade schools still do these Valentine’s Day parties? They’ve gotten rid of so many things in the past few years (particularly after the COVID lockdowns) that it wouldn’t surprise me if this tradition has also been tossed away.

And is this a uniquely American tradition? I have no idea if handing out Valentine’s Cards is a “thing” done in other countries.

(Valentine’s Day 1945)

Ok, off to make that heart-shaped cake. Thanks for strolling with me down Memory Lane!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Audra

1 Peter 4:8-9 Above all, love each other constantly, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining.