St. Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was the first commercial holiday in the US. After showing companies and stores how to make a buck, it has been running third, behind Christmas and Mother's Day. It scores points for sugary chocolate, giving the holiday a uniquely American touch, but its failing is not promoting expensive gifts aggressively. The race is won with high ticket items. A few hundred million $5 greeting cards don't generate the profit of Mothers' Day jewelry and restaurant meals.

It would be worse. Sixth running Halloween lets them remove the guilt for less than $10 in cheap candy. Back of the pack Fourth of July, Memorial and Labor are so unAmerican, they don't register on the consumer scale. It's apparent they need professional image management to become bona fide contributors to the economy.

How could Valentine's Day be improved? The first thing it needs is a recognizable mascot, like Santa and the Easter Bunny. No one knows what St Valentine looked like. We have tasked the people who did Ronald McDonald with giving him an image. Next, we need a tie-in between expression of love and the man's income. Preliminary estimates put the target in the two week range, about $2K. DeBeers' marketing department is on it.

The commercial success of Christmas and weddings comes from weeks of anticipatory shopping. We think a wedding-like ceremony could do the same for Valentine's Day. Why be content with taking their money two to four times, at marriages, when we can con them into affirming their relationship once a year? To make it seem authentic, we are looking for historic traditions that can be rediscovered.

Too bad it's become more of a commercialized holiday. It should be a day to show someone that you love and appreciate them. Instead the corporations have turned it into a better give your significant other roses, chocolate, jewelry and spend money on shit that isn't needed, holiday. A card is nice, but I don't want someone to feel obligated to give me flowers and shit because a day on the calendar says so. Especially stuff like roses that die in a day and are a complete waste of money.

Too bad it's become more of a commercialized holiday. It should be a day to show someone that you love and appreciate them. Instead the corporations have turned it into a better give your significant other roses, chocolate, jewelry and spend money on shit that isn't needed, holiday. A card is nice, but I don't want someone to feel obligated to give me flowers and shit because a day on the calendar says so. Especially stuff like roses that die in a day and are a complete waste of money.

Overrated in my opinion. But women don't seem to tire of it. If you don't think so, try giving one a vacuum cleaner as a Valentines Day present, and see how much nookie you get.

On the other hand, as a day to eliminate your gangster rivals it has no equal.

It's a great holiday if you're an insecure idiot who needs materialist reminders that your intimate relationship does indeed transcend mushy feelings to your girlfriend or boyfriend. "After all, who needs mushy feelings when I can objectively gauge how much I mean to you by how much you spend on me?"
It's also a great holiday for people who own chocolate, flower, and card companies.

It's a horrible holiday that makes single people feel worse about themselves and people who otherwise have good relationships feel guilty for not getting that special someone something a little more special when their gold-digger co-worker Suzie got 2 grand worth of gifts from her rich-from-birth d-bag boyfriend who probably owns a flower/card factory or two and will later unwrap his "present", play with his "toy" and toss it aside when he sees something better on the shelf anyways (sorry Suzie).

Cupid's arrows should be made out of gold and diamonds. That way you can rip it out of your heart and offer it as the perfect present this next V-day.

It's a great day, if you are dating, have a boyfriend or girlfriend, or are married, if you are single? Not so much.

On the bright side? The day after, chocolates and candies are half off on sale at stores!

I do not hate Valentine's Day. I have nothing against the giving of Valentines or those chalky-tasting hearts.

BUT I do not like it either. And that's because it's a commercial holiday that makes every "I love you" seem so contrived on the holiday and for a couple days beforehand. I adore hearing "I love you" from my boyfriend, but I don't like it as much on Valentines Day. It makes me wonder if he's saying it because of the stupid holiday.

Valentines Day is little more than a scheme that benefits jewelry stores and Hallmark. I do like the fact that my boyfriend is buying me some panties this year- and I'm sure he'll enjoy them too. Hah.

This fictional holiday meant to economically force American men to engage in behavior necessary for the continued sexual relationship continues to work on my nerves, ego, and friendly disposition.

Look, I get the big ones - birthday, anniversary, pagan-roman-holiday-based-on-wrong-birthday-of-jewish-zombie. . .I get those holidays. .

But really, Feb. 14 on a SUNDAY?! This screws the whole weekend.

I demand a male equivalent of V-day. Cigars, booze, and the type of vile sexual behavior that would make your mother's face blush in shame. Then we can talk. . .

Another fabricated holiday (possibly dentists) to get rid ofl left over re-worked chocolate from the holidays that didn't sell. Besides that, who eats those chaulky rejects from the Tums factory anyway?

Valentine's Day is ok for those who wish to celebrate it. But I think a lot of times people expect way too much out of this holiday. If a person truly loves somebody, then every day should be like Valentine's Day, and I don't mean by running out and buying flowers, candy, teddy bears, and whatever. I mean a genuine love that is shown to each other in everyday living, such as respect and doing little things for one another. They all add up.

Whilst the message that this day brings is a worthy one, it can also be depressing day for those with no one and can bring about a feeling of segregation. To be honest I had no idea what day of the year this "holiday" was on until a couple of years ago when I noticed it in iCal.

Unfortunately this day has lost some of it's message in the commercial tendencies that surround it. I know there are people who enjoy it, but I don't think I'll ever particularly like this day. If there was ever a day dedicated to dividing people into those who are happy and those who are not - this is that day.

If you are one of those who enjoy this day then I guess to some degree I envy you.

Although I was never particularly fond of the holiday (I fail at being sentimental), Valentine's day is forever ruined for me thanks to a brief stint working at rather prolific greeting card company's corporate HQ (I was possibly their most ironic employee).

If you think Christmas creep is bad, picture nativity scenes and decorated trees being rolled out to the incinerator before you get back from visiting your family over the holidays in favor of hearts and pink and more hearts and more pink and horrifying animatronic stuffed animals that talk at you with their creepy, staticky voiceboxes.

It is the number one holiday for greeting card companies, by a long shot, and the smell of desperation was in the air starting 12:01am December 26th straight on through 11:59pm February 14. After increasingly dismal sales (guess what, you're not the only one who stopped buying cards), employees were encouraged to send post-valentines day cards to people they knew en masse. I'm not sure what sort of response a 2 week late Valentine's day card from someone you didn't even realize had your address would elicit...my best guess: A restraining order.

As an added bonus, this particular company couldn't manage to keep their website up on this, their biggest day of traffic by about 100x, so I'm sure they were actually the cause of many a broken relationship if a person didn't send a backup text or something more reliable. Their excuse? People who only send e-cards on valentines don't really care as much as people who send REAL cards. Seriously.

A holiday so vague in it's origins that the Church doesn't even celebrate it. If you look in the liturgical calendar, Feb. 14 isn't even listed as St. Valentine's Day. It's not even certain who St. Valentine actually refers to. See: http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Valentines Day/origins.asp

So basically it's just a bunch of commercialized garbage packed around a nice idea.

Corporate holiday

Its a scam! We become jerks if we don't break with the gifts, and she better break with the nookie! Its a form of extortion or something!

UPDATE: Bang up job, IJR. (get it? bang?)

My excuse to pig out on chocolate.

A holiday for men to feel guilty about not doing enough.

I think that intentions behind valentine's day are good, but inevitably men screw it up. They don't understand that it means a lot to women and a lot of the time don't make an effort. It is not a necessary holiday and if you love someone you don't need one particular day, it's just nice, when you're in love to do something special with the one you love instead of the same old thing

I think that those of y'all that are saying Valentine's Day is just created because of the card and candy places are just jealous. It obvious y'all don't have anyone in your life to even recieve gifts. Its sad - but don't ruin it for everyone else!

An other Hallmark day for lovers and fools who just don't know any better.

The most useless holiday there is,cause if you need a day to show you love someone,than obivosuly you really dont love them if you cant show someone how you feel everyday. Plus like others here have said it should be called IN-CROWD Day or How To Bash Celibate People day

I'd like to say this was an astronomical event but is frequently a disappointment. Oh well! My mother and her family celebrate it though since that's her maiden name.

i am engaged but this is just a day to waste your money.. if you love somebody, its not only on the 14th february

This must have been invented by the card,flower, and candy companies. An unfair holiday that obligates others to go out and buy at least a card, and even presents to show how much they love someone. OH please! What a rip off. the flowers are always marked way up, as the candies and other goodies advertised to buy your loved ones. This year we got our kids a tiny token gift, and agreed to get each other nothing. No feelings were hurt since we both agree this is a stupid holiday for the card, flower, and candy companies to make money.

A total useless holiday, and yes I believe in love and relationships. Couples do not need a day out of the year to buy their loved ones a gift, flowers, take them out to eat, dancing, to the movies, spend a romantic evening or tell them I love you. There are 365 days out of the year to do this, and 2004 is a leap year so you'll get an extra day to do all that. This is just a day for stores, florists, restraunts and hotels to make extra money.

People should show thier love year round! Not wait for a holiday!

Being married, Valentine's Day is still pretty lame. The pink-colored Hallmark Holiday from hell, it's only remotely cute when you're little and still in grade school. You can't get seated at any decent restaurant if you want to eat out unless you book it half a year in advance, and being a spur-of-the-moment type, it doesn't work for me. And, is it me, or do those "conversation hearts" seem like re-formed year-old rat poison pellets with letters stamped on them?

Utter crap of corporatism at its best...

Doesn't mean a whole lot to me now because I don't have someone special. Hopefully in the future I'll have many happy Valentine's Days.

This holiday was probably created simply for marketing purposes. All of the candy and gift maufacturers got together and designated February 14th as Valentines Day. I don't equate the importance of this holiday to that of Mother's Day- because as we get older we rarely tell our mother's how much we appreciate all they did for us in our youth- but we should tell our significant other how we feel about them everyday.

Valentine's Day isn't a real holiday. It's a day that was created by the card, flower, and chocolate companies. You don't need a special day to tell your significant other that you love them. Plus, it makes people who have no one special in their lives feel lonely and depresed. The only reason I'm giving this faux-holiday 5 stars is because it happens to be my niece's birthday. We'll be celebrating that instead.

Its only good if you have a boyfriend or gilfriend. Otherwise, theres nothing to celebrate here.

A shockingly-underrated holiday that includes class parties, exchanges of candy and small gifts, school things like candygrams and all in the name of love. Sweet for all involved.

Valentine's Day was invented in conjuction with flower, candy and card shops as a way they could exploit sappy sentimentality. That is the way it really is. Romance is a nice thing, but a holiday should not be designated just for it. If you are in a relationship, everyday should be Valentine's Day.

In school, this holiday should be re-named as "In-Crowd Day". Girls and guys alike who are in "in" crowd exchange cards, start acting sappy to an extreme extent, make everybody else want to puke. YEA! Sounds like a great idea for a holiday, doesn't it? However, that isn't always the case...a few exceptions can be made. Most people tend to forget Valentines Day after a while...the only people the day really matters to are younger teenagers. Since I fit in with this population, I know how this holiday is carried out in the schools. Oftentimes, it's just the day when puppy love romance is floating around like sawdust, however, I was happily surprised this Valentines Day. So I feel obliged to give the holiday at least three stars. Take care, everyone!

i hate valentine's day. always have: even in grade school, i was the kid that noone wanted to give a card to or they would put mean things on them. and that was the ones that could even spell my name. so now i'm all grown up, woohoo, and there's still no enchantment to this holiday. so you're supposed to love someone and this is your day to show them how much you care. blah. if you love them so much, why do you need a national holiday declared to tell them? isn't spontaneity much better? hey, honey i bought you these flowers today because i was thinking of you, instead of "hey honey, i bought these flowers because hallmark said i was supposed to get you a card and some roses." bah humbug!

The only thing I really like about this day are my memories from childhood of giving and receiving those cheesy, corny, but cute little valentines in grade school. That and I think the colors help brighten up an otherwise very depressingly gray month. Other than those two things it's become just another chance for card companies, jewelry stores, candy makers, and flower shops to turn a profit.

Originally a very noble idea, and i used to approve and enjoy, but now far too commercialised.Love should be shown spontaneously, genuine and heartfelt, not as an expectation on a fixed day,nor as an opportunity for certain shops and companies to overcharge.I much prefer to give flowers(etc) at other times,when not expected, and not as a routine gesture.I'm also disappointed by the ever-deteriorating standard of cards available,here in Britain at least.My wife and i agree there are much better ways of,-and 364 other days for-, showing we love each other.The Welsh St Dwynwen's day (25th January)is a more innocent,unblemished romantic alternative.

A holiday devoted to love--a good idea, but is too commercialized in our capitalist society. "Gifts" should not be the point. Love should be.

As a person who gets flowers all the time (NOT), feel that this is the dumbest holiday of all. Not because I feel left out in any way, just because I feel that if you really want to make someone feel good, do something nice for them and tell them why you are doing it. If you know a single mom that works day in and day out and hardly has time in between soccer practice, go cook her dinner and tell her that you are doing it because she deserves to be pampered too.

No one can really like this holiday. Actually, this holiday reminds me of what some people make Christmas out to be--a "gimme' this, gimme' that" holiday. Well, Valentine's Day really IS a "gimme' this, gimme' that" holiday. No family togetherness behind all the glitz, it's pretty much like "Commercial Christmas," except only girls with boyfriends get anything. And they don't even have to do anything in return! Though the holiday, believe it or not, was not invented by greeting card companies, they DID make it the (gag!) "popular" holiday it is today, all out of greed, greed, greed! Valentine's Day... the one holiday that makes Earth Day seem absolutely splendid!

Dumb. You must be a fool if you buy into this crap. Valentine's day is just another faux holiday promoted by the executives at Hallmark. Valentine's day is the perfect opportunity to fool people into spending their hard earned dollars on gifts to show their 'love' and 'affection' for their significant others. Think about it! If you really love someone, you don't need a fancy card or 24 long stem roses to prove it! A box of chocolates hardly substitutes for a spouse who isn't there, perhaps being too busy pursuing a career or whatever. Tsk, the fat cats have certainly pulled the wool over many naive eyes.

Love is in the air…BAAAH!! This day ain’t about love it’s all about “show me the present”. This is just a check mark on the women’s rights of passage list. Does he like puppies, kittens, kids and what did he get me for Valentines Day. BAAAH!!

This is the best day, the true love day! :-)

As if relationships weren't already stressful enough, along comes Valentine's Day. I've had two serious relationships end on Valentine's Day when either myself or the person I was seeing decided that our relationship didn't measure up to the sentiments on all of those damn greeting cards. Give me Flag Day over this artificial, stress inducing day anytime....

The perfect lose-lose holiday. If you go to buy something cute, you come off looking cheap. Go to buy something nice, you pay too much for it because of the holiday mark up. Actually get home with something, the thrill last just long enough for them to realize that the only reason you did it was because you felt obligated. Sorry, but the best way out of this one might be to just do nothing at all. My wife and I decided a long time ago that we loved each other and we did not need a national holiday to solidify the fact.

Unquestionably my least favorite holiday of all-time. OK, maybe it was fun in grade school when you'd set up a cool cardboard mailbox and give and receive all those little valentine cards... But right after that this holiday became a nightmare. If you don't have a girlfriend, you feel left out. And if you do have a girlfriend, you're on the spot to do something special, which stinks. It just seems unfair that a crappy little holiday can create an expectation that something extremely out-of-the-ordinary needs to be done. If you don't do something special, you're in trouble. And if you do something special, you don't get much credit, because that's what your SUPPOSED to do on Valentine's Day. All this because some greeting card people wanted an extra buck or two? I say we boycott this lame excuse for a holiday. Wow, I sound kinda bitter, huh?