Cool Facts About Valentine’s Day Your Grandchildren Won’t Know

Grandchildren these days are hard to impress but if you know some cool facts about Valentine’s Day that they don’t, you might score some points.

For example they probably don’t know that a very long time ago (around 270 A.D.) a ruler named Claudius II decided that unmarried men made better soldiers. Another man, Bishop Valentine, did not agree with him and performed marriage ceremonies secretly. (Warning: this story does not have a happy ending so prepare yourself) Valentine got caught and was sentenced to death but before he died he wrote a love note to the jailor’s daughter and signed it, “From your Valentine.” He was executed on February 14th.

A “not so nice story” that evolved into a holiday celebrated with hearts, cards, candy and flowers. Go figure.

Speaking of Cards

Tell your grandchildren that if they purchased cards to send, they aren’t alone. Believe it or not Americans send over 180 million cards each year.

Aren’t you glad you don’t have to pay the postage on all those?

Candy

If you or your grandchildren are wondering about candy it is estimated that $1.7 billion will be spent buying sweets for our sweeties!

Business2Community.com says…..

• 58 million pounds of chocolate will be purchased during the week of Valentine’s Day
• 36 million number of heart-shaped boxes of chocolate purchased for Valentine’s Day
• 8 billion Sweathearts are produced annually and the majority of them are sold between Jan 1 and Feb 14

Flowers

And finally if you have a grandchild who wants to buy roses to send to someone and they ask your advice you should probably tell them to wait a couple days, or send a mixed bouquet of fresh flowers. Roses cost almost double on Valentine’s Day what they do any other day of the year.

That being said Americans will spend 2 billion on flowers according to AboutFlowers.com It is the florists biggest day of the year.

Grandparents Love Their Grandchildren

I’m planning on giving my grandchildren a card and loads of chocolate and candy to be eaten at their own homes so they can drive their parents crazy. I’m guessing the grandchildren will love me for it…their parents, not so much!

Have a Happy Valentine’s Day NanaHood friends!