Sustainable Valentine’s Ideas for 2021
/At-Home and Sustainable Valentine’s Ideas
Start making plans for an eco-friendly Valentine’s Day from your own home this week! From the décor, to your gift, to the date night activity, you can still have a romantic and beautiful holiday while staying safe and caring for the environment.
Set the scene for your date with some well-thought-out decorations around your house to make it feel special even when you are staying home. Opt-out of the décor using tons of latex balloons, non-biodegradable glitter, and cut flowers with a massive carbon footprint. You can have a gorgeous set up without these things with just a few change ups. The refrigeration and production of cut flowers sold across the country and chains uses a lot of CO2 and chemicals. Heading to a local garden center can let you pick a potted plant instead that can continue to give for longer than one week and create pretty space. Some beautiful plants that lend themselves to Valentine’s Day could include the bold choice of an Anthurium Scherzerianum with its big bright petals or the minimal feel of a Hoya Heart with its large single leaf in the shape of a heart.
Another way to have some decorations for Valentine’s Day that cuts down on waste and money is to plan specifically to combine decoration with the food you are going to eat. Fill some clear and reusable candy containers with some of your favorite pink or red treats from Oreos, to macarons, to conversation hearts. If you are having a movie night, prep a big bowl of pink popcorn by popping it with corn syrup, red food coloring, and some Valentine’s themed sprinkles or candy add-ons. Make your dinner with in-season veggies such as beetroots, carrots, or artichokes to create some brilliant colors on your plate. These little touches can add a lot to how special the night seems while not making you spend time, money, storage, or materials on extra holiday-specific décor.
Thinking up creative activities for date night can be one of the most fun parts of planning for Valentine’s and there are multiple options for something that embraces your earth-consciousness and your love for one another. The optimal time to plant trees in Georgia is from November to March. Choosing a tree from a local nursery and planting it to grow for years to come can be a fun way to embrace the outdoors even in the cold weather and tie it into symbolizing your relationship’s growth. Over the years of the tree’s life it can be fun to reminisce on the how each of you have grown and changed in correlation to the tree.
If you’d rather stay indoors, you can turn on an uplifting eco-documentary. I personally recommend “The Biggest Little Farm” for an award-winning documentary that covers how our ecosystems can become self-sustaining and we can work with nature instead of against it. The documentary follows a couple for eight years as they leave their lives in the city to start their own farm with the goal of creating a biodiverse food-producing land to replace the barren and dry acreage that they’ve bought. They encounter struggles and triumphs and the film ends on a beautiful and positive note. It’s a great date-night documentary and let’s you learn about the beauty and harmony of the natural world.
Lastly, make sure you’ve got a gift for the big day. While some experience gifts are harder to give during a pandemic there are a lot of cool online options. Browse through AirBnb’s virtual experiences for some cool ideas including dance lessons, a wine class with a sommelier, or a personal virtual concert. If you’ve got time, making your own card out of seed paper is a cool way to pour some extra love into the gift and you can put in whatever kind of wildflowers you each like.
It may not sound fun to try and plan a romantic evening while keeping in mind your carbon footprint or waste creation, but finding creative ways to value the one you love and their passion for the earth can demonstrate your care in a multitude of ways.