So what if you’re single on Valentine’s Day? This celebration is about love, so it shouldn’t exclude anyone. Throw yourself and your single and coupled friends a Valentine’s Day bash to celebrate love and romance. This party theme is also great for kids.

Be Mine, Valentine: Invitations

Traditional color motifs for Valentine’s are pink, white or red, but that doesn’t mean you should exclude other colors like lavender or baby blue. Make your Valentine’s Day party invitations look like old-fashioned valentines by cutting them out in heart shapes. You can even ask your kids to help you out when designing the invitions with ribbons, lace, or glitter.

Another sweet idea is to design your invitation like a box of chocolates or flowers. Cover the cover of your card with pink-and-white gift wrapping paper. Put a ribbon on it to make it look like a gift. Inside, paste chocolates and roses along with your party details.

You can also attach your invitations to a a single-stemmed rose, a small box of chocolates or a heart-shaped balloon. It doubles as a real valentine and an invitation: it will surely bring a smile to the guests’ faces.

Decorations for a Love-Filled Day

You’re bound to be seeing red on this day, and why not? Red is a vibrant color that elicits strong feelings when you look at it. For a softer look, alternate it with pinks and whites, although soft colors like lavender and blue are also beautiful.

Spell romance by decking out your party space with silver, white, red and pink heart-shaped balloons and streamers. You can also have old-fashioned Cupid statues or Cupid silhouette cutouts on the walls. Replace some of your light bulbs with red-colored ones or warm yellow ones for a romantic, candle-like glow. String Christmas lights for a starry-night feel. Play relaxing love ballads, romantic violin pieces, or sensual jazz tunes to set the mood.

Cover your table with silver or white tablecloths to complement your red plates and utensils beautifully. For a romantic feel, you can put vases of red roses as table centerpieces. Cover your seats or couches with comfortable red sheets and decorate with heart-shaped pillows. Another good tip is to get a clear shallow bowl half-filled with water, and put some lighted floating candles for a warm and glowing feel.

Give everyone a red Valentine’s mood by supplying red accessories like red feather boas, hats, cowboy hats, sunglasses, pins and even tiaras.

Show Your Love: Party Activities

Who says only couples can have fun on Valentine’s Day? No one has to be left out with these fun, creative ways of celebrating the day of hearts, group-style.

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  Hearts
  Decorate Your Heart - Before the party, cut out some giant-sized hearts from white, red or pink paper. At the party, supply the guests with different arts and crafts materials such as glue, scissors, ribbon and glitter. Let them decorate their own hearts using these materials. After they’re done, put them up a wall where everyone can see them. You award the most creative, the zaniest and most unique hearts.
• Valentine Pictionary - Put your romantic and drawing skills to the test with this game. All you need is two chalkboards (or whiteboards), chalk or pen, erasers, and slips of paper with romance-themed words and phrases like “white wedding,” “candy hearts,” “lovers in Paris.” Have the teams take turns guessing what the words or phrases are within a limited time. The team with most correct guesses wins. (Tips on how to play pictionary)
• Valentine Charades - If you want to have a more active game than Pictionary, you can try Charades. It has the same concept as Pictionary, except that instead of drawing clues for the words and phrases, you act it out.
• Famous Couples - Compose a list of famous couples, real life and fictitious, and split the guests into two groups. Have them guess the other half before the other team. Some famous couples are: Marge and Homer Simpson, Anthony and Cleopatra and Romeo and Juliet.
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  Love letter
  Mad Libs - Write a love letter with a few missing words. Make multiple copies of this letter and pass it around. Have your guests fill in the blanks, reminding them to be as creative and crazy as possible. Read the lettersin front of everyone afterwards. This is sure to get some laughs from everyone!
• Love Story - Divide the guests into two or three teams, and ask them to write a love story section by section. You can have one person write one line first, or one paragraph. The story will then be continued by their teammate. This will bring out a lot of laughs as the story becomes wackier and wackier.
• Truth or Dare - Take a trip back to your adolescence by playing Truth or Dare. Have everyone sit down in a circle with a bottle as a spinner. Whoever the bottle points to after being spun will be given a choice of “truth” or “dare”. If “truth” is chosen, he or she will have to answer a personal question truthfully. If “dare” is chosen, think up of a crazy dare that he or she could do.
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  Cupid box
  Cupid’s Gift - A variation of hot potato that will certainly keep everyone on their toes. Before the party, boxes of varying sizes. Every box must be able to fit within another box. Wrap all these boxes before nesting them in all together. Pass around while playing a song. When the song stops, the person who ends up holding it is out of the game. Unwrap the first box and take out the other nested boxes. Start the music again. Do this until there is only one box left. The person who is left wins.
• Kiss Off - Draw up and cut out paper silhouettes of people and put them up on the wall. Ask your participants, even the guys, to put lipstick on. At a given time, they must kiss the paper silhouettes and make as many lip prints as they can. The one who has the most visible lip prints wins.

Sweets for Your Sweet

No true Valentine’s Day is complete without romantic food. Love your tummy with these yummy drinks and treats.

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  Candy bar
  Candy Bar - Nothing eases a broken heart better than a good bar of chocolate. You can set up a candy bar in your party, offering different kinds of sweet treats for your guests. You can also give it a little Valentine’s twist by offering only red candies.
• Liquor Bar - Another way to ease a hurting soul is a good drink. Have red-colored drinks in glowing red glasses. Make sure that none of your guests stay at the bar alone, though—it is a Valentine’s party, after all.
• Chocolate or Cheese Fondue - A staple in any romantic dinner, why not include this in your romance-themed party? This sweet and rich watering hole will certainly draw guests together and it can get them to talk. (Learn how to make cheese fondue)
• Have a Heart - Sandwiches, mini-pizzas, jell-o, cupcakes and brownies can be cut out using heart-shaped cookie cutters. Put on plenty of red-colored additions on these food items, like tomatoes on the pizzas and sandwiches, or red icing on the cupcakes. You can also have a big heart-shaped cake as the highlight of the menu.
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  Red fruit pie
  Red Fruit Pie - Prepare cherry or strawberry pies by purchasing pre-made pies and fillings. Put in the filling a few hours before the party and seal it with the crust. Top with whipped cream and put in the refrigerator to cool before serving.
• Icy Hearts - A day before the party, put cherry juice with fruit squares in heart-shaped molds. When drinks are served, take out the frozen heart ice cubes and add them for a creative and hearty drink.
• Think Pink - Pink or red colors for your drinks and food will sure be a hit for Valentine’s Day. Pink lemonade, pink sherbet or pink ice cream will surely tickle your guests pink too.

Valentines party! Check out this video.

Leave with Full Hearts and Full Hands

Party favors are your way of saying thank you for your guests for coming. You can give small bouquets of flowers and chocolates, a bag of candy hearts, red-colored candies, a batch of cookies, pink plastic jewelry for the younger guests or even pictures that you took of them during the party. It’s the perfect way to end a party full of warm and fuzzy feelings. Happy Valentine’s Day!

* Amidst the party fun, you should also set aside a bit of time to celebrate the day with your sweetheart. Pull him or her aside, say “I love you” and surprise him or her with one of these Valentine’s gift ideas.