Green your Valentine's Day!

With Valentine's day coming up this weekend I thought it would be great to share some ideas on how to green your Valentine's day.  While Valentine's day is a widely commercial holiday, with decorations and chocolate heart candy boxes displayed immediately after Christmas it is also a great day to celebrate your relationship with minimal impact to the environment. 

Some stats: According to the American Greetings Corporation, Valentine's day is the second largest card sending holiday of the year with over a billion valentines being sent globally.  In addition, over 36 million heart shaped chocolate boxes are sold each year.  Green Living Tips estimates that a billion cards laid out across the world would stretch around the world 5 times!  That seems like a lot of trees to cut down for a card you will read only a few times and most likely throw away within a week or two.

What you can do:

• Make dinner at home using locally grown food and celebrate with local wine
• Ask your fiance to buy you a potted plant or house plant instead of cut flowers
  
• Buy fair-trade or organic chocolate instead
• Send an e-card! (They have some great designs)
• Do something together instead of buying each other a gift.  Get a massage, go wine tasting together, book a night at a local hotel, go see a play or turn off your phones, TV, internet etc and just enjoy one another!
  

Image courtesy of Alex Original Handbags