Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.
Oscar Wilde
Every holiday is an opportunity to show the kids in your life just how much you love them, but Valentine’s Day definitely takes the cake.
Don’t settle for drugstore chocolates and store-bought Valentines when there are so many creative options to celebrate the season of love with your kids. Eat, drink, craft and play your way with our favorite ways to celebrate a fun-loving Valentine’s Day with kids.
Valentine’s Day Eats for Kids
Valentine’s Day Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies
What’s great about this recipe is that aside from being delicious and easy to make, it also has a unique “WOW” factor that kids love. Like traditional chocolate crinkle cookies, these cookies start as little balls rolling in powdered sugar (a step that little hands love to do). But once they hit the oven, that’s when the magic happens. As they expand, they reveal beautiful ruby cracks that surprise and excite kids of all ages.
Beloved No-Bake Rice Krispie Treats.
Rice Krispie treats are the ultimate kid-friendly recipe. They’re loved by everyone, quick to make, and kids will feel the love when their sticky fingers make special Rice Krispie ‘sculptures.’ With this recipe, we’re adding pink and red M&Ms to make the Rice Krispies extra special for Valentine’s Day. For an even more festive treat, encourage your little to mold hearts out of the mix, or spell out ‘I LOVE YOU’ in M&Ms across a sheet of Rice Krispies.
Sweetheart Strawberry Cheesecake Dip
Make hearts melt! This Strawberry Cheesecake dip requires a small handful of ingredients and offers easy-peasy directions for whipping up a crowd-pleasing snack. Pair it with pretzel rods, graham crackers, or spoon over cupcakes as a healthier alternative to frosting. Grab a bowl and spoon and put the kids’ muscle power to work!
Valentine’s Day Drinks for Kids
Classic Shirley Temple
When it comes to kid-friendly spritzers, you can’t beat a Shirley Temple. Vibrant red grenadine and the pop of a maraschino cherry (or three) will make any kid feel like a star. Prefer a low-sugar version? Try this Pomegranate Shirley.
Cotton Candy Mocktail
For the perfectly pink tipple, try a cotton candy mocktail. This recipe uses real cotton candy and strawberry soda to make a beverage that’s utterly unique (and kid-approved, of course)! Go the extra mile with fancy plastic champagne flutes and hot pink sprinkles. Let’s a make a toast to love!
Strawberry Hot Chocolate
At Valentine’s Day, there can still be a nip in the air in many places around the country. Why not warm up with a fun and festive spin on the classic hot chocolate? This strawberry version uses real strawberries (no quick mix here) to make a lovely pink treat to warm little hands and hearts on Valentine’s Day, at winter birthday parties, or classic tea parties.
Valentine’s Day Crafts for Kids.
‘My Heart is Bursting’ Craft Game
Balancing Home shared this fun Valentine’s Day craft that’s great for a Valentine’s Day themed party or for kids to make and take to school. For this activity, get your little ones to help you fill mini cups with individually wrapped treats. Then, cover with tissue paper and hold tight with a rubber band. Glue the mini cups (tissue-paper side out) to a piece of cardboard or poster board in the shape of a heart. Now the game is ready to play! Let each child choose a cup to ‘burst’ and collect the prizes inside!
Alternatively, you could use this game like a Valentine’s Day advent calendar. Create 14 cups, and let your child burst open one each day counting down to Valentine’s Day.
Heart-Stamped Valentines
Help your kiddos make their very own Valentine’s Day love notes. With this craft from Pretty Prudent, give an empty toilet paper roll a second-life as a heart-shaped stamp! Once the cards dry, add a short-and-sweet message in each one and deliver some love to your friends and family.
Love is for the Birds
We cold all use some extra love in the dreary days of February, including the birds! Backyard birds become love-birds with a special valentine in the form of a heart-shaped bird feeder. All it takes is bird seed, some common pantry ingredients, and a heart-shaped cookie cutter to make a loving treat for our winged friends.
Valentine’s Day Activities for Kids
Go for a Heart Hunt
Looking for love? With this game, you’ll have the whole family on their feet searching! To play, cut out several heart shapes from construction paper, or buy small heart-shaped toys. Hide 10-30 hearts around the house, just like an Easter Egg hunt. Give each child a basket and send them off to gather as many hearts as they can! For extra fun, play some kid-friendly love songs while everyone searches. The winner gets to hide the hearts the next round.
Valentine’s Day Bingo or Trivia
Gather together and put your brains to work with a few games of family bingo! This free printable Valentine’s Day bingo game is fun and easy for kids as young as four. If you have older kids to entertain, try a Valentine’s Day trivia game instead.
Watch Gnomeo & Juliet
Grab the Valentine’s Day popcorn and cuddle up with a kid-friendly Valentine’s Day movie night! While there are endless Disney love stories, why not get swept off your feet in a different kind of fairy tale? Gnomeo & Juliet offers a creatively goofy take on Shakespeare’s classic love story. It’s rate G, so the whole family will LOVE it!
Stay Young at Heart.
Valentine’s Day is more than candy hearts and roses. It’s a reminder to celebrate the ones we love and have fun while doing it! Children are our best teachers when it comes to loving unconditionally, year-round. May this Valentine’s Day bring you lots of fun and hugs as you enjoy the day with your little love bugs!
There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.
George Sand
