Valentine’s Day Memories
The CMoR staff recounts some of their favorite Valentine's Day memories!
Published on February 9, 2022
At my daughter’s school, Valentine’s Day cards were not allowed. The reasoning was that the school did not want to contribute to a celebration that ended up becoming one more occasion to support commercialism. That made a lot of sense to me. Still, listening to all the stories of my coworkers’ favorite childhood memories of Valentine’s Day, I realized how fondly those childhood Valentine’s Days are remembered. That feeling must be the reason why, as grownups, we are excited to participate in picking a staff “Secret Friend” to treat on Valentine’s Day!
When she was in 2nd grade, my daughter set herself the task of writing Valentines for all 24 of her classmates. To each one of them, she wrote something that she thought made them special, including a boy in the class who was not very popular. Even though she had to think about it a little more for him than for everyone else, she found something positive to write about him on her card. That exercise in finding something affirming was powerful!
The reflection below sums up that sentiment:
Valentine’s Day was always really fun because even if there was a classmate that didn’t have a lot of friends, they still got valentines from everyone and that made them really happy!
Mary Kate, Guest Services Manager at the Downtown Museum
Valentine’s Day Memories from the staff at the Children’s Museum
I would make cupcakes for the entire class and put a heart candy on top of every single one of them. I would do that every single year.
-Peter, Administrative Coordinator
On Valentine’s day, my sister and I would come down after getting ready for school in the morning, and on the kitchen table my parents would have put out a box of chocolates for us, which was really wonderful- a very sweet way to start the day.
-Jeffrey, Director of Operations
My brother and I would have a joint birthday party on Valentine’s Day. My mom would bake a double heart cake. His birthday was the 18th and mine was the 1st… so I had to wait while he got to celebrate early.
-Krista, Director of Education
My mother worked at the school that I went to, and so she would always send us candy grams at school. She made it my favorite holiday with all of the little ways that she made it special throughout the day!
-Danielle, Executive Director
My mom would leave little valentines outside of my brothers’ and my door, which was really fun. When we were little, we would wake up and there’d be a little treat with a note, saying a very personal thing about what she loves about us. She still does it through text!
-Sarah, Director of Development & Marketing
I loved going and getting valentines for the whole class and then giving them to everyone and getting one from everybody.
-Allie, Volunteer & Communications Manager
I have a very fond memory of my mom coming to my classroom from Kindergarten through 2nd grade to do a Valentine’s Day craft with me and my classmates. I felt so special, not to mention all my classmates LOVED when my mom came so I felt like I was floating on cloud nine the whole day.
-Hilary, Education Coordinator
My father actually would gather baskets of gifts for myself and my siblings and my mom, so I couldn’t wait to see all the little things he would put in there for us. I loved receiving that from my dad, it was the best thing ever!
-Candace, Guest Services Operations Manager
Well it’s my birthday, so my favorite thing is being able to see my family! But being Valentine’s Day, I love the little candygrams that we did in elementary school.
-Mary Kate, Guest Services Manager
In elementary school each child in my class would bring to school a shoe box or cereal box (I always wanted to have a shoe box) with a large slit in it to make a Valentine’s Box. We would paste construction paper hearts. As we sat in our seats at school each child would get to pass their cards out while the rest of us waited in anticipation for that person to put their card in our box. We couldn’t look at them until every child had passed out their cards and then dumping began. I remember reading and rereading those cards dozens of times. It was so much fun!
-Pamela, Educator
Making your own Valentine’s shoe box where kids put the cards in when I was in elementary school.
-Melissa, Accounting Administrator
Those are very “sweet” memories that will last a lifetime! memories that bring a smile to our faces when we think of them.
Time is Love
This Valentine’s Day, spend time with your children making valentines cards for each other or other members of the family. You don’t have to buy anything, just gather some recycling materials from home like paper bags from the supermarket! Spending time together creates a shared bond, as well as a special moment of connection between you and your child.
Don’t forget to visit the museum, create your own valentines in the art studio and participate in a fun Valentine’s Alphabet Scavenger Hunt. Search around, find the word and place it on the big heart alphabet in front of the Sun Tubes!
People will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Maya Angelou