Valentine’s Day has never been a real “Top Tier” holiday in my mind, especially as a grown-up. We have a family birthday the week before, the week after, and one actually ON February 14th, effectively neutering the holiday.
We still give the kids some candy, and try and squeeze in a date during the week. Of course, living with me, every day is like Valentine’s Day. (Expecting some push-back on that one.)
The holiday had more luster when I was young. We would spend time making our Valentine boxes to put on our desks. We would make our lists of who we were giving Valentines to. I don’t think we even considered the radical new idea of giving a Valentine to everyone in the class. I’m sure we would have considered that idea ‘yucky’ at best. I remember bringing the box home, dumping it on the floor and sorting out the candy and Valentines to see who put up.
I don’t know if it is still common, but there was “supposed” to be an essence of secrecy when delivering Valentines. It was all about leaving them on the doorstep, ringing the bell and running. We would even do that to our own family members. I suppose we thought we were all clever and nobody would notice one of us leave – only to return out of breath, seconds after the doorbell rang.
We would always get some candy from my parents, but that is not the tradition that comes to mind when I think back. My Mom always had something special for us, each and every Valentine’s Day.
Underwear.
Yes, that’s right: Boxers, tighty-whities, boxer briefs – whatever was the underwear of the era, Mom would give us a new pack for Valentine’s Day. Every year. Everyone.
I don’t know if it was her snarky take on the Valentine lingerie tradition, or just a way to remind herself to bring in some replacements. We could count on getting a new pack every year. She even went to the distribution center to take care of herself and my dad.
This did not stop when we grew up. Even into my married years, Mom would supply us with new underwear for Valentine’s Day. I thought it was as normal as normal could be. My new wife might have been a little weirded out…
We probably should have maintained that tradition for ourselves and our kids, but we let it slip away. Thankfully, I can look back fondly on my Mom’s unique tradition. She’s been gone for 13 years now – and I imagine that, sadly, I probably still have some of the underwear she bought me somewhere in my drawer.
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You could totally be my husband! Seriously or long lost brothers separated at birth. Your personalities and opinions are so much alike it’s scary. From day one of our marriage he put me in my place about valentines day and his exact words are and always have been “every day is like valentines day when you live with me!” Hahaha
He is your husband.
That has never been our tradition, nor have I heard of it. But THIS year, I did receive ‘surprise’ new underwear for V-day….I also got dessert 🙂 It was just funny that your post and my gift were so timely 🙂
That is SO funny……….yet sweet all at the same time. ; )
My grandmother does the same thing for my parents… I don’t know if it weirded my mom out or not, but she has not kept up the tradition. I think it’s kind of funny and told my husband about it, and he laughed.
My mom had the same tradition for Christmas. Along with everything else, there was always something from the distribution center. the first few years my EC was weirded out too. This year was the first that we didn’t have that package under the tree. 🙁 but we have carried on with our married children….and weirded out our sons-in-law.
For V-Day, its just dinner since our youngest is now in high school.