Celebrate Valentine’s Day with Heart: Creative Card-Making Service Project and Party Idea for Your Home or Classroom
Make cards to share the love!
It's that time of year again, that heart-shaped extravaganza of sugar and silly puns!
We’re back, reminding you to shrug off your disdain for the explosion of pink and purchasable junk in the stores.
Think of Valentine’s Day as the perfect time to re-focus your family on living generously. Let’s make this a holiday all about sharing love, kindness, and compassion.
Instead of dismissing the commercialization typical of this season, why not transform Valentine’s Day into a celebration of generosity and compassion?
This Valentine’s Day, take the opportunity to focus your family—you can even invite your neighbors, friends, basketball team, or open it up to an entire classroom—on living generously. Imagine a holiday dedicated to sharing love, kindness, and compassion through engaging activities and community service.
My 9-year-old daughter said it best during the festivities last year:
“I like making Valentine cards because I like being creative and I like cheering people up. These cards do both. Plus, it lets them [the people at her great-grandpa's nursing home] know they are loved and cared about.”
One fantastic way to do this is by hosting a card-making party. this is a quick, impactful service project that always promises fun and fulfillment.
For years, our family has hosted an annual card-making party, starting weeks before Valentine's Day to be sure our cards will be completed and delivered on time.
Every year, the kids and their friends (and parents too) have had a great time. Together, we've created stacks of beautiful, sometimes silly, and always imaginative designs. It's wonderful to listen in while the kids swap stories about visiting elderly friends and family.
Whether your card-making party is immediate-family only, or opened up to a larger group, this project is sure to lighten up these dark cold days of winter.
First, plan your party.
When and where can you gather? If you are sending your cards to an organization that will share them on your behalf, plan early! Deadlines will usually be around the 20th of January. Of course, you’ll have a little more flexibility with timing if you’re delivering the cards yourself to a local nursing home or hospital.
Second, choose where you’ll share your cards.
Do you have a family connection to a nursing home, hospital, or community in need of support? This would be a great place to start.
If you don’t have a personal connection, contact one of the following and ask if they would accept donations of cards and possibly candy:
Local nursing home
Local children’s hospital
Local Meals on Wheels
Mail to Cards for Hospitalized Kids
Mail to Hugs for Soldiers
Third, who will join you?
It’s completely OK to do this at home with your own family. It’s a great at-home winter activity to teach compassion and empathy. But if you want to extend the invite to more people, have fun sending out your invites! Will you be gathering school friends, your child’s basketball team, neighbors, or simply setting up a card-making station for intermittent house guests over the next month?
And remember, crafting kindness knows no gender—ensure everyone feels welcome to participate, with plenty of crafting supplies to appeal to all.
This project not only lightens the dark, cold days of winter but also teaches invaluable lessons about compassion and community service. Plus, it’s a perfect way to integrate meaningful activities into your Valentine's Day celebrations.
Fourth, gather your materials!
Scissors
Markers, crayons, etc.
Glue sticks
If guests offer to bring craft supplies, welcome them! The more materials, the more creativity the kids can unleash.
Some direction can help kids get even more creative with their cards.
For example, gather wild-life magazine, googly eyes, and an animal-themed joke-book and invite kids to create silly animal cards. Or browse pinterest for your own favorite craft idea.
Toss in a cake and some red balloons, and you’ll be ready to party.
Fifth, read about it!
We highly recommend Somebody Loves you, Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli. This story is not only beautifully written and funny, but also perfectly illuminates some crucial big ideas:
People all around us might be lonely.
Cheerful mail can change someone’s whole day.
Sharing kindness with someone may inspire them to pass it on.
And reaching out to your community can make everyone feel less lonely.
Of course, you may want to gather lots of the books in our unique collection of picture books that celebrate love.
Sixth, It’s time to party! Create! Reflect!
Of course, the kids didn’t craft for hours and hours. Our guests arrived ready to dance, play, and giggle first. Once they settled down, we gather around a table full of crafting goodies and talk while we create. Here are some of the questions that really got their conversation going:
Have you ever been to a nursing home? Children’s hospital?
What do you think it would be like to be away from your home, unable to get around the way you usually do?
Have you ever felt lonely? What might make you feel less lonely?
Why do you think the people who receive our creations will think of them?
What messages do you think you should add to your card? What might make others smile?
How do you imagine they’ll react?
Finally, deliver your cards.
If you can deliver them in person, that is really the most fun and the most meaningful for everyone. When we can’t, we package them up with chocolate hearts and a special note for whoever will be distributing them. Then we send them through the mail.
Have you hosted a card-making party?
What are your tips for success?
Looking for more ideas? Check out our other creative opportunities for kindness!
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The recommendations we offer are based solely on our mission to empower parents to raise children who care and contribute.