Valentine’s Day spending reached a record-breaking 27.5 billion dollars in 2024, from candy and flowers to jewelry and cards. As stores from the U.S. and beyond stock their shelves with heart-shaped candies and “be mine” stuffed animals, some consumers are eagerly preparing to shower their loved ones—friends, significant others, or family—with Valentine’s themed gifts. However, others remain skeptical, scoffing at the over-commercialized one-day-a-year holiday targeted primarily toward couples.
While there are many different theories about how Valentine’s Day first came to be, it is widely celebrated as a day of love—evolving from love for a significant other to self-love and friendships. By asking various students and staff around UC about their thoughts on Valentine’s Day, we can see why some people may have opposing views.
When asked how she felt about Valentine’s Day, Ms. Tracy Doherty revealed that she loves it.
“I use it as a day to celebrate love in general—my friends, family, everybody,” Doherty said, showing how not everybody views Valentine’s Day as a holiday for couples.
Similarly to Ms. Doherty, UC senior Joshua Etienne ’25 shares the same belief that all types of love should be celebrated on this holiday.
“I think it’s nice to celebrate everybody in your life on Valentine’s Day who you have any sort of love for,” Etienne ’25 said while also sharing that he does feel like Valentine’s Day is “a bit commercialized.”
For many, this is one of the main reasons why Valentine’s Day is not favored as much as other widely celebrated holidays.
Another UC senior, who requested to stay anonymous, said they feel like “Valentine’s Day is thrown in your face and so focused on for one day out of the year. I think it should be celebrated every day instead of companies using it as a way to guilt people into buying from them.”
This complaint is common among many people who don’t like or acknowledge Valentine’s Day. However, when asked how they will spend Valentine’s Day, there were similar responses despite mixed feelings about the holiday as a whole. All three interviewees said they would be spending the holiday with friends and family.
“My parents get me cute little gifts every year, but we don’t make a huge deal about it,” the anonymous UC senior added.
Although Valentine’s Day may be a debatable holiday to some, it remains a day about love, however each person chooses to spend it. Everybody has some way to make it unique to themselves, making the one-day-a-year holiday whatever they wish to make of it—a day filled with Valentine’s gifts and chocolates, the people they love, or just another typical day in February.
