Valentine’s Day at Home, Alone, and Fabulous

A guest blog by Sara Bacon, a sparkling SoCal soul who spends her days helping others enjoy their lives with new-found clarity and her evenings savoring charcuterie and cocktails.

Valentine’s Day is my favorite holiday and I don’t care who knows it. I mean, of course, I love Christmas, but I feel like Christmas is its own season and not just one day. So Valentine’s Day has usually been the one for me.

I love it for so many reasons, but overall I’d say it’s the general celebration of love mixed with all the glitter and shades of pink I love the most. And while I know it can get a bad rap, and single women are often portrayed lamenting this day “created” by the card companies for couples, I’d have to argue that being single is my favorite way to enjoy this holiday. In relationships I didn’t enjoy the forced pressure it brought to do something special, or the expectation on my partner to spoil me or buy me gifts. That never pans out that well in my opinion.

Instead, the years I’ve been single for it (which lately, has been QUITE a few in a row), I’ve fallen even more in love with the traditions I’ve created for myself around it. So if you happen to find yourself single this year, and most likely celebrating at home, here are some ways to make it your own and to deeply enjoy it as well:

Ask yourself what sounds like the best night in to *you*

I’m not a fan of blanket advice because there are 7 billion unique humans on this earth each with our own preferences and desires. So me telling you to “fill up a bubbly tub and light a bunch of candles and pour yourself a glass of champagne” may be horribly off-base for what your ideal night looks like. So spend some time thinking about what an extra special night would feel like to you and start there.

Maybe you’d love to host a small dinner party outside with a few friends. Or get dressed up and do a solo photo shoot at home just for the hell of it. Or put on your roomiest sweats and order takeout and binge watch murder shows. All that matters is that you’re enjoying yourself and doing something you love.

Plan Out a Good Meal

Every so often I’m in the mood to whip up a nice dinner for myself from scratch (code for making cacio e pepe 9/10 times), but if I’m being honest, I think I get the most excited about ordering food from somewhere else.

My personal favorite and savior during quarantine has been thai food from Bamboo Bistro in CDM, who thankfully offers both takeout and delivery. I also recently treated myself to my good friend Lauren’s (of The Gourmess) meal service and felt like I hit the jackpot. If you’re local, I highly recommend her to cook your meals whenever possible!

The beverage portion of a meal is incredibly important to me. (Fancy stemware also falls under this category). I’m typically a red wine gal so if I’m staying in for V Day, that might look like treating myself to a bottle that’s more than $10. But I will say that one thing I miss about eating out is the option to order a delicious cocktail. It’s the only time I’m enticed to stray from my cabernets. For a brief period in quarantine, I started pretending I was a mixologist, which was mostly just me shaking up freshly squeezed grapefruit juice and gin and adding some kind of garnish. But any drink recipe with more than 3 ingredients and I’m usually out. And while canned cocktails might work at the beach, I’m not about that life at home.

So the fact I can order legit restaurant-quality cocktails that I would 100% order if I was out, straight to my door thanks to JAI, is amazing. The added garnishes are also the cherry on top. I had the Drunk in Love for an early V Day treat with my dinner and it was perfection. Also such a fan of The Cheeky which happens to be my favorite cocktail color. Pour them in a fancy glass and I almost don’t miss eating out at all. 

Self-love but not in annoying way

Valentine’s Day is actually the best excuse to show yourself some extra love. It gets to be a chance for you to treat yourself how you’d want a lover to treat you, without any of the fights when they don’t show up how you wish they would have.

It’s hard to utter the words *self-care* these days without feeling incredibly cliché, but here’s why I think Valentine’s Day is actually the best excuse to show yourself some extra love. It gets to be a chance for you to treat yourself how you’d want a lover to treat you, without any of the fights when they don’t show up how you wish they would have. So if you love when people buy you flowers, or make you nice meals, or run a bath for you, or give you a massage, give you presents, etc., etc. Take your favorite option (preferably multiple), and give them to yourself instead! Not waiting on other people to meet my desires has been one of the biggest gifts I’ve given myself. Don’t wait for pleasure to come to you, create it in any way you can.

Give some love away

There’s also soooo much more love to celebrate in this life than romantic partners. Let’s help spread it out a little bit, shall we? Making Valentines is by far my favorite crafting activity, so once a year I go all out and make as many as I can to send to friends and loved ones. When I don’t have a partner to focus my attention on, it allows me to take in and celebrate all the love and friendship I have in my life that much more, and so Valentine’s Day gets to be a perfect excuse to share that. So making Valentine’s, sending random Venmo’s to friends treating them to coffee or a bottle of wine, having cocktails delivered to their door, or making a nice dinner for your friends are just a few ways to share that love, and you’ll be making someone else’s V Day that much sweeter too ;)

So I hope that gives you a few ways to get excited about celebrating a holiday that you may have previously dubbed “unredeemable,” and also remember that every day is a chance to do the things that sound most lovely and enjoyable to you, and to add some extra love to this world.

Cheers and happy Valentines Day from my heart to yours. xo