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Buying Into The Valentine’s Day Hype

Published in Articles
Friday, 12 February 2010 15:00

Valentine’s Day spending is expected to reach an astounding $14.7 billion this year. That’s a whole lot of flowers, crappy chocolates and ugly teddy bear purchases for one day. Surprisingly, even though individuals are well aware that the holiday is purely consumer-driven by nature, they usually spend about $100 on gifts each year anyways.

I happen to be on the Anti-Valentine’s day boat – showing the love on one specific day when there are 364 more days to go is ridiculous to me. More importantly, I don’t think true happiness comes in a box (unless, in that box is a mini Caribbean island, named after me.)

I normally don’t celebrate the holiday – not since college when all those chicks with boyfriends flaunted their love telegrams & roses.

All bitterness aside, today I am one of those chicks in relationships - and I still don’t like Valentine’s. Restaurants typically have a fixed overpriced menu that I am not the least bit interested in eating. I cannot stand crowds of people and public displays of affection, all they do in fact, is make me exhibit public displays of dry-heaving…

Some of you may dispute that I can get away on a romantic weekend – maybe somewhere in the woods. Though that may be true, I can actually do that on the weekend after, when rates make sense and all the other nauseating couples go back to hating each other on a regular basis.

I don’t buy into the hype and neither should any of you. I mean, why not cook your special somebody a dinner, make them a memento or do something out of the ordinary instead of buying them the same Hallmark card that most of the population will be receiving too?

PICE1C2.tmpOn the flipside, Valentine’s Day shipper Mike Lovering - who insisted on using this pseudo name for the purpose of this article – believes that Valentine’s Day is just as valid a holiday as Christmas.

‘It gives you something to look forward to,” Lovering says, “Why do we buy gifts on Christmas or send our mother’s flowers on Mother’s Day when we should be grateful all year?

“The truth is, these ‘holidays’ (including the tackiness) are deeply rooted in our society and give us purpose,” he continues, “Sure, we should show it every day, but then life would be boring – besides I am guaranteed some action if I play my cards right on Valentine’s.”

While we may have sat there arguing those very points for an hour. I must admit that Lovering did have some valid arguments. If we showed our appreciation every day, at some point, we would take these nice gestures for granted.

Valid points or not, I can’t help but sympathize with the woman (or man) who is the only single person in a group of married friends. It can suck, especially on a day targeted at people in relationships. Singles can’t help but feel isolated. Especially if all their ‘relationship friends’ are boasting about the chocolate love paint they bought for that night.

It is estimated that single women often send themselves flowers on this day, in fact, 15 % of them do. Congratulations! You 15 % have made Valentine’s Day Bitchin’ again. And why wouldn’t you send yourself flowers? You are one rockin’ bad-ass chick and deserve to show yourself the love.

In all seriousness, even though I don’t buy into it, I can see what the all hype is all about. There’s that one day where loved ones make each other feel special, do something sweet or romantic and really pull out all the stops. If you don’t participate, you or someone significant ends up feeling left out. But consider this: Rather than on a day where love is expected, what if that special someone did all those special things on a random Tuesday. Wouldn’t that be more special?

By: Angelique Picanco
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