For many years, I kept special valentines I received as a child in a special wooden stationary box. The more elegant cards were three-dimensional with messages of love and intricate drawings of hearts on a background of lace, reminiscent of Victorian times. Other valentines showed elephants, tea pots or cowboys or vegetables and fruits with corny wishes for a “dog-gone” good day, a play on words or just a simple message like “Be Mine.
With adolescence came an emphasis on romance. The boxes of chocolate or a stuffed animal or flowers or an invitation to a dance—if you had a crush or a beau.
The origins of Valentine’s Day are far removed from today’s emphasis on commercialization. Third-century saints—all of whom were named Valentine--were martyred on Feb. 14 because of their ability to heal and convert the masses to Christianity.
The concept of love, however, was introduced by Geoffrey Chaucer in his 14thcentury (The Cantebury Tales), in which he writes of a “Parlement of Foules” (Fowls) birds, mating in February, which associated mating birds with lovers and hence fostered an exchange of amorous messages and tokens of love, which spread in the following centuries (Davies).
Valentine cards had been produced in Europe for some time before Ester Howland, whose father ran a successful book and stationary store in Massachusetts, introduced developed a small business marketing valentines with lacy edges and a short poem around 1847.
Valentine’s has become unrecognizable for many of us, given the festivities surrounding Feb. 14 have grown to include cards, flowers, chocolates, jewelry and dinners. Spending projections vary considerably. And many of us seek a unique experience or to create a tradition.
Below, I describe our family tradition of painting hearts and having a memorable evening with family or friends.
Given I have an artist as a sibling, our traditions center around the arts. We decided to paint wooden hearts with a personal message or drawing. To keep expenses down, we ordered the hearts online. Acrylic paints can be found at the Dollar Tree or ordered online.
We coated the hearts with a base coat wash of acrylic then used a permanent marker for the design and additional color for highlights.
Happy Valentine's Day!
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Works Cited
Davies, Amy. “A Tudor Valentine’s Day.” Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/blogs/tudor-valentines-day/. Accessed 6 February 2026.
Related Works
Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Parliament of Fowls.” http://www.librarius.com/parliamentfs.htm. Accessed 6 February 2026.
“Valentine’s Day Spending Expected to Reach New Records.” National Retail Federation. 26 January 2026. https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/valentine-s-day-spending-expected-to-reach-new-records. Accessed 6 February 2026.
Wyland, Jessica. “How Valentine’s Day Became a Commercial Holiday.” University of Texas Permian Basin. https://online.utpb.edu/about-us/articles/business/how-valentines-day-became-a-commerical-holiday/. Accessed 6 February 2026.
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