The Right Way To Celebrate Valentine’s Day [InfoGraphic]

The Right Way To Celebrate Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day is often seen as a day only for couples who want to celebrate their love and affection for each other. However, Valentine’s Day can also be a great way to celebrate many different types of love within relationships with family or friends. It is a day that is tempting to ignore or even get depressed about, but we feel that it’s actually the perfect opportunity to celebrate and just have a good time. To help you towards your ideal 14th of February we have provided this helpful flowchart, following it should give you at least a couple of ideas that really appeal to you and fit your situation perfectly.

Valentine’s Day is not just about making yourself feel good, it’s a fantastic opportunity to make other people feel great about themselves as well. We hope you can use our suggestions to make yourself and a loved one smile and, by doing so, have a great Valentine’s Day!

Infographic produced by Basekit

A Valentine’s Gift for your Man, Whatever the Stage of the Relationship

Christian Singles

As Valentine’s Day approaches most couples start to think of the card and present they’ll get to show each other that they care. If you’ve been in a relationship for a long time then you may have developed some sort of established routine, or thought up a new surprise to celebrate the day.

Young Love

When relationships are new and you have only been together a matter of weeks it’s not always easy to know what your new boyfriend might like as a Valentine’s gift. In the beginning a small gift is more appropriate, such as a CD of a singer that you know he likes, or perhaps a book or DVD.  If you want to get something a bit more personal, and you know his size, you might want to get him a shirt or some other unique menswear item, perhaps from a Hugo Boss or Barbour outlet.

Shopping for the man in your life is never easy, but most women get more adept at it as time passes. When you get to know each other better, perhaps when your relationship has passed the three months mark and you begin to think of yourselves as a couple.

When you have been seeing each other for a few months you are still getting to know each other, if you want the relationship to continue you might want to find him a Valentine’s gift that will impress. Even though you don’t know everything about each other, you’ll know whether your guy has a particular interest or whether he is into the latest gadgets. If you know he’s been coveting a particular boy toy, a particular radio controlled car for instance, then why not make his day with that present.

Getting Serious

If Valentines Day comes around when you have been together for six months or more then other people will see you as a couple and the relationship is probably on a more serious footing.

If the weather is still very cold, as it often is in February, you might want to get him that sweater, part of a unique menswear range that would bring out the blue in his eyes. If you want to give him a Valentine’s gift of a shared experience, then why not book a table at your favourite restaurant. When you’ve eaten you can produce cinema tickets for the film you’ve both been meaning to see, surprise him why don’t you?

Long Term Partners

Once you’ve been together for a year or two, you may be looking at the long haul; there are plenty of personalised gifts available at stores like a Versace or Barbour outlet. By now, if you’re like most young couples you’ve probably been on holiday together and have lots of things to talk and laugh about.

One of the things to emerge in recent years has been the gift of an experience, or better still a shared experience. It’s possible to book experience weekends and although these are often sought after by businesses for a corporate team building exercise a growing number of individuals and couples enjoy the experience.

Shared experiences are the things that help to build and cement a relationship and Valentine’s Day is one of the best times for doing this.

This article was written by Crispin Jones on behalf of Anna Davies the renowned Barbour outlet who stock a great range of unique menswear ideal for gifts.

The Antidote To Valentine’s Day

Christian Singles

If you’re still paying for Christmas then you’ll be overjoyed to be reminded that Valentine’s Day is almost here. And that marketing event ain’t cheap neither, the average American spends $160 on gifts for their partners and family, not a whole lot less than Christmas.

You could try to do things on the cheap, yeah, right, if you fancy being single on the fifteenth! However, you could do things that will keep the costs down by stealth, making a card yourself rather than sending an overprices tacky missive from a high street stationer says that you’re thinking of her; baking a cake instead of buying one off the supermarket shelf says you like to do things for him.

You can dip your own strawberries in melted chocolate, that often leads to other things and it’s cheaper than a huge box of chocolates that you present her with only to be accused of “trying to make her fat.”

How about taking care of business yourself with a home vajazzling kit? That’s an awesome surprise and much cheaper than getting it done professionally.

If you’re single at the moment then you’re probably sick of it all before it’s even begun, going out this weekend is going to be a chore with all those smug couples staring longingly into one another’s eyes, smooch induced nausea! So, if you don’t feel you’d be responsible for your own actions out on the streets then how about holding your own anti-Valentines day party? Make it themed and it could be a scream.

How about a Gangsters and Molls themed cocktail party? Or invite a few of your single crew over and have a night of slasher movies and beer? You could invite everyone over and indulge in a bit of speed hating. Speed dating’s been done to death, speed hating involves getting together and having a really good moan about your job, the government, taxes, you get it, just rag on everything that’s getting you ripping for a few hours.

If you’re a single girl and you’re not looking to get tied down then how about treating yourself to a day of mani pedis and massage? Get a facial and a new ‘do. Do it for yourself sister!

If you’re a single guy you might like a mani pedi and massage but how about sending a card to your dear old mum, tell her how much you appreciate her and that you love her dearly. She might think you’ve flipped but it’s good to tell her every now and again, no matter how old you’re getting.

Another thing a guy might do is send flowers to one of his single lady friends. I don’t mean all creepy weird stalkery but just a few flowers (Not a single red rose!) to some-one who might appreciate the thought right about now. And you never know, she might have a sister…

Dan Cash will be sobbing bitter tears as he microwaves his romantic ready meal for one on Valentine’s Day.