Cheers to the big red and pink holiday

February 15, 2017

By Sarah Sobanski

So, Valentine’s Day happened.

Whether you woke up to kisses or your cat Feb. 14 – which, really, is lucky either way – chances are you participated in the day of love with or without meaning to. For example, did you buy your fluffy, half-of-the-bed hogging, face-sleeping friend a present for Valentine’s Day? Not your husband. According to a Buzzfeed Community post, three per cent of pet owners buy their pets a gift.

Maybe it’s for pets, but Cupid’s holiday isn’t for everyone. Actually, it isn’t even for most people.

The Globe and Mail recently quoted a 2015 RetailMeNot.ca survey that suggested 78 per cent of Canadians feel Valentine’s Day is overrated. Many people take up the cause of death to consumerism and commercialism – burn those heart chocolate boxes, drown that confetti, screw that lingerie that digs into your ribs that you’ll probably never wear again.

According to the survey, most Canadians didn’t even go out. Only 13 per cent would have been out for dinner and a movie, 30 per cent cooked in. Home cooked meals are better anyway. I got your back.

No matter how much of a fuss you put up this year, however, I’m going to go out on a limb that there’s a tiny part of you that gets a little bit excited for Valentine’s Day. Or maybe there’s a big part of you that gets excited if you’ve been using sex pheromones to bag your date. We all know that Valentine’s Day is the holiday of love, and for a lot of couples, that’s a great excuse to get intimate in the bedroom.

A 2017 survey by Ebates.ca suggested that 68 per cent of Canadians are romantic at heart. If you’re in this category, let’s see how you measured up.

According to the survey, the average cost of a Valentine’s Day gift was $58 – this puts Valentine’s Day nearly equal with Mother’s Day, believe it or not. Maybe men are the only ones buying gifts for women, maybe we set the standards, maybe there’s some sort of correlation there. I doubt that. Canadians actually spent around $200 on their beloved Feb. 14. Guess that means with all this commercial talk we’re all 29 per cent better at Valentine’s Day than average. Take that France.

If you took your sweetheart out for dinner, chances are you did something right – phew. A third of Canadians wanted to dine out for Valentine’s Day, but 15 per cent wanted flowers – whoops. If you got creative with gift cards you were among 38 per cent who got similar, well thought out gifts like these for Valentine’s Day. Good thing 40 per cent of people said gift cards are what they want for holidays like these. Almost half of us however prefer to find something no one else will think of. Just a little dig in case your sweetheart’s next Valentine isn’t you?

Don’t worry, if you didn’t have anyone to fawn over this time around, or you don’t next time around, you can participate in Singles Awareness Day (SAD). You don’t have to join the storm of over 1 billion cards that get sent – that’s just unoriginal.

Regardless of whether you’re a fan, or just not that into her, at the end of the day Valentine’s Day gave us all a good distraction. With all this snow it was good for a belly warming laugh at the very least. Happy belated Valentine’s Day from everyone here at the Bancroft This Week.

PS. I’ll be away next week. Any questions, comments, concerns or ledes can be emailed to jenn@haliburtonpress.com.