10 Ways To Celebrate A Valentine's Birthday

February is the month that most people associate with love. It’s all hearts, candy, flowers and romance. Or disappointment, heartache and tons of ice cream or other comfort food to drown your lack of love/romance in. Thanks Valentine’s Day.

I’m not going to go into how much I loathe Valentine’s Day and the commercialism of this “pretend” holiday. Or even how I’m bitter that Valentine’s Day overshadows and gets in the way of my birthday, which happens to be February 14.

Instead, I’m going to highlight 10 ways to celebrate a Valentine’s Birthday:

1.       Have pizza delivered to them for lunch along with flowers. Everyone loves pizza and pizza, for most people, was a childhood birthday food staple. As for the flowers, flowers just make people happy. But stay away from roses…too “Valentine”.

2.       If you take them out for dinner, try and go to a place that will have live music, like a piano player. Arrange to have the musician(s) play “Happy Birthday” when they enter the room.  Everyone in the room will know someone’s celebrating a birthday and that things besides Valentine’s Day happen on February 14.

3.       Get them a really cool gift that is in no way related to Valentine’s Day and/or love. I suggest the Beanie Buddy octopus named Inky. It’s an octopus named INKY! A friend gave me this in high school and I LOVE it. Especially the name.

4.       Throw them a surprise party. Who doesn’t love a surprise party? The birthday person will be beyond touched that so many people gave up celebrating Valentine’s Day to celebrate the day of their birth instead.

5.       Bake a cake. This is a thoughtful thing. One of my best birthdays involved my roommates making me a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and ‘Happy 19^th Birthday Melissa’ spelled out in licorice. It doesn’t have to be perfect…it really is the thought that counts. I don't have a picture of that cake, but I do have a picture of this cake that a friend and her daughter made for me and surprised me with:

6.       Take them out. Blow off work/school/responsibilities to take them to a bar and do birthday shots with them mid-day (or right after work). Valentine’s Day hasn’t really kicked into full gear yet, so they’ll be able to enjoy their birthday without a ton of couples around celebrating Valentine’s Day. If things get a bit wild, that’s ok. And let’s be honest…shots really do make things better.

7.       Spa day. Nothing says birthday like being pampered. Even if you can’t afford a full spa day, send them for something…manicure, pedicure, facial even a massage. This really is the best way to spend your birthday.

8.       Dance party. Just make sure there are no ‘love’ songs on the playlist. Many of my birthdays have included impromptu dance parties and they are ALWAYS fun. Plus, this is so easy to do! Turn on some music and start dancing.

9.       Do something they love but not Valentine’s related. For example, if their favourite restaurant is having a Valentine’s special, skip it. They like to bowl and the local bowling alley is doing rock-and-bowl, this would be good.  I spent a lot of my birthdays at rinks watching hockey games.

10.   Remember their birthday. This really is just basic. Year round so many people remember my birthday because it’s on Valentine’s Day. But then, the actual day arrives and no one remembers/cares because they are so busy and focused on Valentine’s Day. Try and remember their birthday outside of Facebook- send them an e-mail, text message or pick up the phone and call them- all are better than a Facebook message (which points out who’s celebrating a birthday that day).  And for goodness sakes, do not give a combined Valentine/birthday gift and/or card.  Separate the two events.

If you know someone who is born on Valentine’s Day, do something nice for them- forgo celebrating the fake “holiday” that is Valentine’s Day and instead celebrate the day of their birth. They really will appreciate it. Trust me.