Valentine’s Day isn’t about expensive gifts or elaborate gestures—it’s about celebrating love in its most genuine form, especially with your littles. The beautiful thing about celebrating with your kiddos is to understand that love isn’t measured in dollars spent, but in moments shared. Your presence, attention, and enthusiasm matters infinitely more than any present you could buy. Let’s reclaim Valentine’s Day as a celebration of pure, simple love—the kind that shows up in sticky fingers, glitter-covered tables, and hearts that might look more like squares. 

The most meaningful gift we can give our kids isn’t something we’ll find while scrolling through Amazon or wandering the dollar section at Target. It’s about showing our littles that real love and magical moments don’t need to come with a price tag attached to them. It’s super easy to get caught up in the pressure of Valentine’s Day, especially with For You pages filled with perfectly curated heart-shaped decorations and extravagant bouquets. Kids are funny because they are fascinated by the most random selection of objects. If you want to watch a toddler’s face light up, give them any household item and watch their imagination run wild. It’s moments like these that remind us about love in its purest form—and sometimes, that love is shared through an empty kitchen tupperware with no lid. 

If you take anything away from this, it’s that, no—you don’t have to buy your kid a present for Valentine’s Day. There’s no shortage of ways you can make your kiddo feel loved. As much as they like to challenge our patience and sanity a little, they can really be easy to please. This Valentine’s Day, focus on adding one more bedtime story to your routine, or by letting your kiddo pick their favorite movie for you all to watch. Love is in the memories that you are naturally making along the way, so lean into that this Valentine’s Day, and ditch the pressure that comes with color-coordinated, extravagant displays of love and appreciation.