Show Love and Appreciation This Valentine’s Day With Unique Gifts

by Patricia Leslie

No need to worry about ordering flowers for your honey for Valentine’s Day. Nobody wants ‘em.

When asked for the ideal Valentine’s Day gift, none of the area persons queried last week in an informal survey mentioned flowers.

Best gifts ranged from a big cake to “world peace” to a solo trip to an island for a spouse.

Bessie Smith from Fairfax City said she wants a “big, big ice cream cake” from the Dairy Queen which her husband got her last year, and she loved it.

Annmarie Steinfeldt wants white chocolates from Harbor Sweets in Massachusetts. “I let myself buy them once a year,” she beamed.

“Friendship” is what Hoy Lai said she would like most.

Shohreh Kraselsky of Vienna picked a day on an island for her husband and hoped he would be nice. “I don’t want chocolates; I don’t want flowers” but a remote day for her spouse, that’s all.

Likewise, a family man from Falls Church, who wanted to be anonymous, said he’d just like “a day off.”

Joanna Fitzpatrick from Burke wants a mini-vacation in a “tiny cabin” sometimes known as a

“gateway house,” many which are located about two hours west from Falls Church near Shenandoah National Park. Prices start at $229 but a “lover’s code” (Love2023) for February will get you a 25 percent discount.

Jamie Lambkin of Fairfax said he’d like a trip, a vacation “somewhere we can go together” like to the Bahamas.

Cendy Ouber said she’d be happy with a Starbucks gift card. “I love Starbucks,” she said and paused: “but a ring with my kids’ birth stones” would be heavenly, too.

At the Mary Riley Styles Library, “world peace” and a “box of chocolates” were tops on the list of two librarians, who preferred to remain anonymous.

The internet is loaded with unusual and different ideas for Valentine’s, like a rechargeable cordless light bulb in the shape of pink heart ($40).

For $25 you can buy a virtual “Date Night Special Aphrodisiac Cooking for Two” with an “expert instructor” and a choice of dates to cook.

Or how about a red blanket in the shape of a heart to mingle tootsies ($148)?

Love messages on 24 vanilla shortbread cookies are only $36 or buy three pairs of leather Valentine earrings for $2.99.

For bigger spenders, “Rolling in Love” perfume spray costs $275 (50 ml) and Tiffany’s has a 2.8 carat heart-shaped diamond ring for $168,500. (Smaller carats and prices, available.)

Dining out and the theatre are always special.

Little City arts supporters adore Creative Cauldron or, for bolder lovebirds seeking some adventure, trip on in to D.C. to Gala Hispanic Theatre to see the hilarious “Native Gardens” where English surtitles appear on two screens for those who don’t speak Spanish. (From the McPherson Square Metro station, it’s an easy ride to Gala on the 52 or 54 bus up 14th street, home of many fine restaurants.)

Falls Church Farmers Market offers many products in red, including, for your health conscious honey, beautiful, shiny apples which Pennsylvania’s Toigo Orchards sells for $3.99 a pound, or (for the not-so-health conscious), homemade strawberry and raspberry pop tarts found at Chris’s Marketplace ($5 each).

There’s always a reliable red pie, a homemade cherry sold at where else? Valentine’s Bakery and Meats for $21.99.

Excluding cards exchanged by school children, almost 200 million Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year in the U.S., according to National Geographic. But over the last decade, the National Retail Federation says Valentine’s Day celebrants have declined somewhat, due to commercialization, no soul mate, and no interest.

I used to work in downtown Nashville where I took the “floral tour” at my building every Valentine’s, going from floor to floor, desk to desk to admire all the dozens and dozens of red roses which adorned the desk of every female employee.

Well, most of them.

Late in the day, my boss would inquire about my flowers: “They are coming,” I told him, and we would laugh.

This year I’ll take those flowers that nobody wants. The florists need somewhere to take them and I’ll be a good stop on their floral tour.