"Best Valentine Gifts for the Newly Dating?"
"Sometimes Less Is More"

You want to give the best Valentine gifts to your new sweetie, but there’s something in your gut that’s making you take pause. What is that feeling?

Ooo! Ooo! Ooo! We know!

It’s called common sense.

Your heart might want to shower your date with affection and share your growing feelings for them, but no relationship should be on fast-forward (you’re not on The Bachelor after all – this is real life). Just because you happen to be dating someone new when Valentine’s Day comes along, that doesn’t mean you have to throw out words like “love” and “future.” Heck, even signing your card with “Love, Jane” or “Love, John” can throw someone into a panic. “They wrote ‘love’? What does that mean? Omigosh! Is this getting too serious too fast? Am I in love too? I didn’t sign my card with ‘love’. Did I wreck everything?”

Paranoia. Not good. Not fun. Makes for a tense and stressful February 14.

The Gut Trumps the Heart
If there’s a feeling that you should be holding back with your new sweetie on Valentine’s Day, listen to it. Don’t freak out your date with a giant teddy bear, two dozen roses, a midnight serenade in the front yard, a handmade coupon book of hugs and kisses, or a heart-shaped frame featuring that one blurry cell phone pic of the two of you together.

If you pull out the big guns too soon, you’re gonna throw up some serious red flags to your date. Sure, you want to give them the best Valentine gifts, but if you get too personal – as in, you buy them a vintage edition of a toy they once mentioned in passing – you’re more likely to creep ‘em out rather than impress them with your listening skills and memory.

How can you avoid awkwardness? Have a chat with each other. Nothing serious. No, “We need to talk” language (for the love of Cupid, don’t say this… ever). It’s the elephant in the room… so just bowl right over that sucker and take control of the situation. “Valentine’s Day is coming up – how about we exchange cards and do dinner if it works for both of our schedules?” Elephant flattened.

And Then Panic Sets In
After you’ve had this talk about the best Valentine gifts for this stage in your dating relationship, you may mull over the conversation repeatedly. “What if he/she wanted to do more than that? Did I make them think I’m not interested in them? Did I seem too blasé? Did I seem too interested in celebrating? What was that look in his/her eye?”

Don’t drive yourself crazy second-guessing how the other person is feeling. You’ll never, ever correctly pinpoint what they’re thinking so leave assumptions out of this. The point to having a discussion about Valentine’s Day is to dilute the pressure that surrounds it. When you make a plan about the day, then it becomes about having another date together – it’s two people getting to know each other and enjoying each other’s company. That’s it. Doesn’t matter if it’s February 14 or not.

Letting It All Hang Out
Now, having said all of this, we know full well that some of you thrive on Valentine’s Day. You can’t freakin’ believe that you’re finally dating someone on February 14 and, darn it, you are going to celebrate it, consequences be damned.

We have to applaud your bravery.

If you just can’t help yourself, if you’re certain that your date is going to love whatever you do for them, if you just have to give that $200 gift card for spa treatments, if you just have to buy that gigantic heart-shaped greeting card, if you have to stuff their mailbox full of conversation hearts, well then have at it.

Who are we to stop a true romantic from giving the best Valentine gifts they can possibly give?

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