Valentine’s Day in New Zealand seems like…not such a big deal. The candy is minimal; lots of schools don’t exchange valentine’s cards amongst the kids. While adult couples do the dining-out prixe-fixe death march, there’s not even that many anti-V-Day club nights.
If you want to dream of love and romance, for alternative nuptials you can’t go past Offbeat Bride. They profile weddings, civil unions, and commitment ceremonies for those of us left, right, and upside-down of center to dream about, from gay lumberjacks in the woods to steampunk goth fantasias to eco-cycled backyard picnics.
Also, they were very good-natured about The Onion parody of alternative eco-nuptials, Horrible Couple Really Wants Wedding to Reflect Their Personalities. Or how about those old-time Vinegar Valentines? And serious foodies know to not dine out on V-Day.
The Worst Thing About Valentine’s Day, by The Oatmeal, sums up all the ambivalence around this romantic holiday.
When I was growing up on Valentine’s Day, in my family, we got up in the morning to find that my mother had placed a Valentine and a box of heart-shaped chocolates by our breakfast seat. Not only did this save Valentine’s Day for us forever by making it about all kinds of love, not just “romance”, but it kept us from having to pretend we liked eating conversation hearts. But how hot are conversation hearts EN ESPANOL?
If you’re staying home, make some chocolate mousse. I’m so pleased that David Leibovitz agrees with me about Julia Child’s chocolate mousse being fantastic. Here’s a vegan version that looks like a winner – trust me on the tofu, okay?