The month of February sends boyfriends and girlfriends alike running to the store to buy their better half a special Valentine’s gift. Generally, the gifts are simple: chocolate, flowers, and balloons. Year after year, the gifts remain the same, and the intentions are different.
A study done by Montclair University found that Valentine social media posts were usually associated with terms like “shop” or “gift.” The study also found that these terms were 131.17% more common than “love” and the most related Google searches to Valentine’s Day were squishmallows and Nike’s Valentine’s Air Force 1s.
“In my opinion, the worst gift would be trying to make the most flashy, insane gift without any heart stored inside of it,” sophomore Allison Summers said.
The most common gifts for Valentine’s Day are chocolate, candy, and cards. Other common gifts are jewelry, flowers, and stuffed animals.
“The most overrated Valentine’s gifts would probably be candy cause like, as much as we all love it, it’s just companies using the holidays for marketing,” Summers said. “Also, people don’t always need all that sugar to associate with love.”
Flowers come in bouquets or singles. Candy comes in boxes or wrappers. Chocolate gifts range from heart-shaped boxes to tiny little squares given out individually. To sophomore Mia Nusbaum, a chocolate gift seems “last-minute” and “you could just go to the store and get it.”
“Honestly, I think an original Valentine’s gift that has the most meaning would be acts of kindness and showing love through actions, not purchases.” Summers said.
Original gift ideas are hard to come by as people post and reshare their ideas online. Handmade items have become a popular gift to show love and appreciation to your Valentine, as it takes time and effort to create.
“I feel an original gift is something handmade, like something personal and even something small that you said you liked a while ago,” Nusbaum said.
Not all Valentine’s Day gifts are good. Some are inconsiderate, unthoughtful, and terrible. In some situations, gifts don’t hold significant value and carry a deeper meaning.
“I feel like the worst gift would be something you said you didn’t like, and I guess it shows they weren’t listening,” Nusbaum said.
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