Celebrating Valentine’s Day at home with your kids can be so much fun. Children appreciate the little things, especially when they are young. Any extra special thing that you do, no matter how small, makes them light up and get so excited. And it’s no different with celebrating the holidays.
Valentine’s Day is of course mostly a day of romance, a day to celebrate the romantic love you have with your partner. You go out, get dolled up, and enjoy some fun with your significant other all in honor of the love you have for each other.
But who says we cannot also celebrate the love we have for and with our children?
As stay-at-home moms, we spend a lot of time in our homes doing life with our kids. We use our homes to shower them with love, cultivating an atmosphere of love and peace. The home is where we smile, laugh, play, act silly, and cuddle. It’s where so much of their little lives take place.
So why not also use the space we call home to create some fun holiday fun and memories?
While we’re waiting for our husbands to return from work so we can shower them with Valentine’s Day love, there’s no reason we cannot make the day fun for our kids as well!
And you don’t have to break the bank to do so. You can make some fun memories right inside your own home that your kids will enjoy and remember. So in this post, we will look at some Valentine’s Day ideas to do at home with your children that will be fun and affordable. And these ideas are perfect if you’re looking for Valentine’s Day activities for toddlers and preschoolers.
Celebrating Valentine’s Day at Home with Kids
When kids start going to school, they usually begin participating in fun activities during the holidays. Their teachers might throw them a Valentine’s Day party, having them bring Valentine’s cards for all their friends. They might enjoy treats like cupcakes and candy, and maybe have some games or a movie day.
Well, you can do something similar at home! If you don’t have school-aged children or if you homeschool, you can definitely make the home feel just as exciting.
Sometimes being stuck at home, especially during colder months like February, can be frustrating. It’s too cold to go outside and visit anyone in the cold weather. And you start to run out of fun indoor activities to do with your kids.
But, this is all the more reason to allow a day like Valentine’s Day to invade your home and turn the space into something festive, fun, and fresh.
And when it comes to toddlers and preschoolers, who may not be in school yet, they deserve a little fun too. They are essentially the easiest age to please. So you won’t need to spend a ton of money or go completely out of your way to do something that feels huge.
You can create some special Valentine’s Day memories with your toddlers right inside your own home. It’ll give you all something to look forward to, and something different to do, breaking up the “stuck in the house” rut.
Do Toddlers Care about Celebrating Valentine’s Day?
If your toddler is really little, around 2 or 3, they probably don’t even know what Valentine’s Day is. So, of course, they won’t miss anything if you decide to do nothing. But as they start to get a little older and more savvy to the ways of the world, they might start asking questions.
My now 5-year-old son is all about the holidays. And when he turned 4, he definitely started looking forward to certain holidays and holiday activities. It was at the age of 4 he started remembering some of the fun activities we did in the prior year.
So of course, your toddler doesn’t really care specifically that you celebrate Valentine’s Day with him or her this year.
But, it’s up to us to make life happen for them. To make things fun and exciting, and to educate them on the things our culture celebrates, at least for the purpose of knowledge. They won’t know about anything at all if we don’t share it with them.
The memories we create with them while they’re little will stick with them. Maybe your 2-year-old won’t remember specifically what you did on Valentine’s Day 2024. But as they get older, the Valentine’s Day activities and fun you create for them now will start to create excitement within them.
They will begin to remember, “Oh yeah, last year we did this for Valentine’s Day,” and look forward to doing it again. Plus, you’ll have some super cute pictures to look back on as a family.
Pros of Celebrating at Home with Kids
It can be fun to get your kids out of the house to go do something fun with them. I love letting my kids experience new things and places, whether that be a new restaurant, a new playground we haven’t visited before, a museum, or the zoo. There are tons of places to take your kids during any given holiday and season that would be fun for the entire family.
However, there are some great benefits to learning to celebrate and have fun at home too.
Valentine’s Day is the perfect holiday to spend inside with your kids without all the guilt and pressure from missing out on outside activities. Most families in the US recognize and celebrate the day, but it’s not as big as Christmas or Halloween.
During Christmas, you might feel pressured to take kids to see Christmas lights or the bazillion other festivities that happen during the season. During Halloween, there are trick-or-treating and fall fests. And even during Thanksgiving, you’re usually attending family gatherings.
But Valentine’s Day offers a more relaxed day of celebration. Let’s look at some pros of celebrating Valentine’s Day at home with your kids.
- You can avoid any hustle and bustle. Usually during Valentine’s Day, a lot of restaurants are booked up and very packed. Trying to keep your toddler calm and patient in that setting can be frustrating. But by staying home, you can avoid the crowds, and enjoy a Valentine-inspired meal or treats in the comfort of your home.
- You don’t have to stress about finding something cool to do. Most of the Valentine’s Day festivities are geared toward romance. So trying to find something Valentine’s specific to do with the kids can be challenging. By staying home and making the day special yourself, you avoid that headache.
- You can create special Valentine’s Day traditions that are unique to your family. Everyone does the day a little differently. Staying indoors allows you to make traditions for your kids that they can simply walk downstairs to experience.
- You don’t have to spend a lot of money, or any at all! Planning Valentine’s Day ideas with toddlers does not have to empty your wallet. You can definitely do Valentine’s Day on a budget with little kids. No need to rack up a big bill at a restaurant. You can turn a simple meal at home into something special with easy embellishments or a little creativity.
- Your toddlers can actually be free to have fun. When taking your kids out to restaurants, they have to sit still and be quiet. They are not free to be creative and messy and release all their little energy. Staying home allows them to enjoy the holiday with some fun.
Valentine’s Day at Home Ideas
Now, let’s finally look at some specific things to do at home for Valentine’s Day with your little ones. These Valentine’s Day activity ideas are great for both toddlers and preschoolers, and even children a little bit older too.
1. Handmade Valentine’s Day Cards:
You and your kids can make handmade Valentine’s Day cards for family and friends. Grab some colorful construction paper, crayons, markers, stickers, stamps, and anything else you think might be fun to use. And let your kids go to town. Yes, they will simply scribble all over the cards, but they will have so much fun. And you can help bring some order to the chaos and write on the cards for them. And older kids will love being able to make something meaningful for Dad, or grandma.
2. Embellish actual store-bought Valentine’s Day cards:
Maybe you’d rather not have to start from scratch and make handmade cards. You can just buy some store-bought cards and have your kids color and decorate those instead. This makes for a little less mess and still gets the fun job done.
3. Decorate the house and make it Valentine’s Day ready:
Transform your home into a Valentine’s Day wonderland. You can buy some affordable, yet cute, Valentine’s decor at the Dollar Tree if you’re on a budget. Or, you could even make your own homemade decorations. But decorating the house in red and pink, maybe throwing some balloons around the house, and putting a few decorative hearts on the wall can make the house feel special for the day.
4. Cookie Decorating Party:
This is an obvious win for everyone. Toddlers and preschoolers love cookies! And then they get to decorate their own? Brilliant. Yes, it can be a little messy, but you can make this one as messy or as mess-free as you’d like. You can bake the cookies from scratch or you could simply buy some already baked cookies and decorate those. But get some pink and red sprinkles, icing, and maybe get some heart-shaped cookie cutters.
5. Make pancakes and shape them into Hearts:
Another food item that you can make that is pretty easy to shape into hearts are pancakes! I did this last year with my kids and my son loved it. I simply used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut the shapes out of the pancakes after they were cooked. He was obsessed. I was making heart-shaped pancakes for days.
6. Storytime with Love:
Read Valentine’s Day-themed books with your toddlers and preschoolers. Any book that is loved-themed would work here. If you’re on a budget, you can just rent a bunch of themed books from your local library. Go all out! Get like 10 books instead of just one or two. And get ready to read them all back to back right after you eat those Valentine’s Day cookies.
7. Love-Filled Movie Night:
Have a cozy movie night at home with a selection of family-friendly films. Choose movies that emphasize love, friendship, and kindness. Include some heart-shaped snacks to make it special.
8. Order out something special for dinner:
On this special day, order your kids’ favorite meals for dinner. A lot of places do special Valentine’s Day- themed meals. So you might get lucky and get a heart-shaped pizza for dinner! Or at least get some sort of special discount.
9. Put together a frugal Valentine’s Day Basket:
This is one of my favorite things to do with my little ones. You can put together cute baskets of Valentine-themed treats and gifts. You don’t have to break the bank here. Dollar Tree is your best friend or even Walmart. Walmart usually has some cute affordable buckets you can use instead of a basket, which tends to be pricier. And you can even reuse the same basket or bucket each year if you want. But fill it up with stickers, candy, Play Doh, and maybe a toy or two. Have the baskets sitting out and ready for them when they wake up. They will love it!
10. Dress up in red and pink.
This is a simple idea that will definitely make the day feel more festive. You and your kids can all dress in Valentine’s Day colors. Maybe the girls can wear pink and the boys can wear red. Maybe even have red and pink pajamas ready for them for bedtime as well.
11. Take pictures in your Valentine’s Day outfits:
Obviously, you have to take some cute pictures in your cute clothes. After dressing up, pose for some fun shots. You can just use your phone for this. Get silly with it. Share the pictures with friends and family, or just print them off later for your family to look back on.
In Conclusion
If you were looking for ideas on what to do for Valentine’s Day at home with your kids, I really hope this post helped. You now have 11 solid at home Valentine’s Day ideas. I hope to grow this list with time as I experiment with new activities and fun with my toddler and preschooler.