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I LOVE love. I consider myself a “hopeless romantic” and think that showing love and affection are very important to the health and longevity of a relationship. BUUUT I’ve never been a fan of the commercialization of the holiday of love. So, I’ve never really celebrated Valentine’s Day as a holiday.
Actually, I start the Valentine’s season (January 1st) off with a frank discussion of “no-gifts” and something along the lines of “do we want to do anything to celebrate our love?” But it is NEVER to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
I like to imagine that Valentine’s Day became commercialized to celebrate all the types of LOVE we have in our lives–friends, siblings, co-workers, you know, all the people we WANT to celebrate whom we don’t already have a special day for. And THEN it dissolved into the chaos of celebrating everyone. As much as I love what (I like to imagine) the holiday stands for, I think the key to maintaining the sustainability of the holiday is to dial it back to the root of the holiday.
Let’s celebrate our love. With a little thought behind it, we can make it a holiday that isn’t necessarily over-commercialized or bad for our planet. Hell, we can even show the planet how much we love it by showing our love for everyone else in our life with eco friendly Valentine’s gifts!
My favorite ways to celebrate love are those enjoyed most by my people. Honestly, my partner’s love language is physical touch. He’d prefer a hug, hand-holding, or even cuddles on the couch after a long week to me buying him arbitrary chocolates that would be gone in a week.
Personally, I build quality time in with my loved ones’ gifts. Date nights, weekly chat sessions, one-on-one discussions. I’m not big on receiving gifts, but my mom LOVES receiving gifts; it’s what makes her feel most loved.
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Eco Friendly Gift Ideas
If you have people in your life who’s love language is also receiving gifts, consider these eco friendly gift ideas below to make your gifts more earth-conscious this year:
- Gift an Experience: museum pass, yoga sessions, dinner out, a theatre show–it’s even better when they get to share the experience and spend some quality time with you!
- DIY Cards
- Handwritten and Homemade will always WIN, bonus points if you design the card yourself with pretty images or doodles
- Etsy always has fun and creative Valentine’s Day cards you can print at home and add a little note to
- If making or printing at home, opt for 100% recycled paper
- If buying a card, try to find a card with 100% recycled content and without any glitter or plastic that would prevent it from being recycled or composted at the end of it’s life
- Plant Flowers
- Instead of buying or picking flowers to display your love and affection, consider planting some for your loved ones.
- You can gift seeds for them to plant themselves, or plant a few varieties to put together in a nice planter and gift as a live plant
- If starting from seed, try to opt for plants that are native to the recipient’s growing area. And then you’ll be helping nature as well by feeding or housing future eco-systems
- A Live Plant
- This is one of my favorite things to gift because it lasts a long time. I and the Boyfriend have several plants in our house that were our Grandmothers’ before they each respectively passed away. These plants are daily reminders of our grandmothers and the love amongst all of us.
- A live plant for indoors is a great gift for those who don’t own any land or are in a small apartment.
- While native plants are always the best, you might be hard-pressed to find native plants that do well indoors (since they are typically accustomed to the weather in that particular area). In this case, opt for an easy-to-grow, air-purifying plant that has flexible light conditions. I like Aloe Plants because I use them in my skincare too!
- DIY Gifts by using items you already have around the house (there are so many options!!) This is not a reason to go out and buy old items below…but to get creative with things you may have around the house that you are no longer utilizing.
- T-Shirt Quilt: bonus points if the t-shirts have special meaning for the two of you
- Leg Warmers from old Sweaters
- Sugar Scrubs
- Garden Markers from old Cutlery
- Reusable Bags: I’m forever leaving mine in the place I don’t currently need it (it’s in the Boyfriend’s car when we’re in my car, etc.).
- Chocolate: Ethically-Sourced, Fair-Trade, and/or Rainforest-Friendly
- Wine: USDA Organic and/or Certified Biodynamic
- Responsible and Sustainably-Sourced Jewelry: I’ll admit this is not an area I currently know much about. I know that diamond mining is not super earth-friendly and there are lab-grown diamonds that are making headlines these days.
- And last, but not least: Shopping Locally for long-lasting, quality, and necessary gifts that the recipient will use
What will you be doing this year to celebrate your loved ones in a way that also celebrates the Earth? Outside of Valentine’s Day, the Boyfriend and I have created a “Year of New Adventures” with one new adventure ticket/date every month. In January we went Rock-wall Climbing, and this past weekend we both ran our first 5k; we’re excited to celebrate and continue strengthening our relationship with the new adventures all year long!
