Candy-Free Valentines May Be Better For Kids, But They Still Sound Like A Total Bummer

Valentine’s Day is basically just a convenient excuse to eat copious amounts of delicious, free candy, and that’s one of the main reasons why I love it. I’m ecstatic about gigantic Reese’s peanut butter hearts and I love tempting fate by working my way through a box of chocolates without a map to tell me where the gross ones are. It’s one of the most pointless, delicious days of the year and for that reason, it is very sacred to me. When I was a kid, holidays like Valentine’s Day were one of the few times I was guaranteed a reprieve from my parent’s usual emphasis on healthy eating. I got to indulge and unleash my unbridled sugary passions.

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That joy is no more for most kids, though, thanks to the proliferation of concerned parents working to ensure Valentine’s Day is a candy-free holiday. Almost every blog post and article I’ve seen this year touts new and ever more elaborate ways to keep your kids candy-free, often involving fancy handmade cards with small trinkets and tokens attached for each kid in your child’s class, which is another trend I don’t understand.

When I was a kid we just gave out plain, store-bought cards. You want a candy-free card? Great! They sell boxes of them with every theme imaginable at Walmart. I’m not sure why Valentine’s cards are suddenly unacceptable without treats or homemade crayons and glow-stick light sabers attached, but I think this whole candy-free movement encouraging parents to spend time and money on crafty greetings and cutesy plastic junk might just be a solution to a problem that doesn’t need to exist. 

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