Why I Love, Love, LOVE Valentine's Week (err... Day)

In a previous post, I wrote, 

Before every holiday, I find myself saying, "I'm so excited! [Upcoming Holiday] is my favorite holiday!" Which is a much happier and more positive approach than the typical, "Ugh. I hate [Upcoming Holiday]! It's so commercialized!"

But if I haaaaaaad to pick one favorite holiday, and it couldn't be Christmas, Halloween or Thanksgiving, it would definitely be Valentine's Day. I mean, when I'm with my significant others, I don't even call it Valentine's Day. I call it Valentine's Week. And if he's not a Valentine's Week kind of guy... then it's probably time to break up with him. Because what's the point of dating someone you can't be incredibly fun and silly with? 

And since today is the first day of Valentine's Week 2015, I thought I'd share this old post from back in my Quora days. 

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Around this time of year, you start to hear a lot of people bickering about how stupid Valentine's Day is. 
 
“It’s a Hallmark holiday!”
“I hate flowers and cards and crowded restaurants!”
“You should show your love for your partner year round – not just on Valentines Day!”
 
But the truth is, I totally love Valentine's Day. It’s one of my favorite holidays – right up there with Christmas and Thanksgiving.  
 
Why? Because Valentine's Day isn’t about paying $50 for a $12 bouquet of flowers. And it’s not about some mass-produced Hallmark poem. If it were, I suppose I would hate it, too. 
 
Valentine's Day would feel contrived. Artificial. Obligatory – sort of like a chore. 

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But no! For me, Valentine's Day is an opportunity to be insanely creative and silly and over-the-top with my partner. 
 
It’s a day when I can demand heart-shaped pancakes with heart-shaped strawberries and juice with heart-shaped ice cubes in it. 

It's time to get your heart-on.

When I can say to my Valentine, “Let’s get to work really early today, and then leave really early. We’ll go to the beach and get in the water and have a huge picnic and bonfire and sunset!”
 
If he’s a good boyfriend, he’ll be silly with you, too, and maybe surprise you with something like this:

Valentine's Week 2012, Day 2: Santa Cruz. Justin got a HUGE heart-on. 

Or, if Valentine's happens to land on the Thursday (or Friday, or Saturday) before President’s Day, you can say, “Valentine's Day? More like Valentine's Four Day Weekend! Let’s take Friday off and go diving, camping and kayaking in the Channel Islands! Yay!”

And maybe, just maybe, you can even wear matching pink swimsuits!

It’s well-known that couples that play together, stay together. They have higher relationship satisfaction, more fun and higher levels of physical attraction to one another. (Want to know more? Check out Money DOES Buy Happiness - If You Know How to Spend It.)
 
If you could achieve this with manufactured goods like chocolates and cards, then we probably wouldn’t need things like loneliness and divorce, would we? 
 
So get creative this Valentine's Day. Be silly! Get excited! Do something so cute and adorable that you can't possibly take yourselves seriously. Get your palms sweaty and your heart pounding. And the romance will undoubtedly follow.