A Valentine's Day Dinner for the Whole Family (2024)

Maybe we’re weird, but ever since we had kids, Valentine’s Day has been more about family love than romantic love. We usually get together for a nice dinner and exchange Valentine’s…and that’s about it. But it’s a tradition, and I’m all about tradition.

This year we decided to kick it up a notch and really go all out! My daughter-in-law Kaitlyn was in charge of the decor, my daughter Britta made the food, and I was in charge of creating a few fun printables. The result was a fun Valentine’s dinner experience for the whole family that (even though we held it a couple of weeks early) we all enjoyed thoroughly.

I hope by sharing some of the things we did that you will be inspired to throw a “Love Dinner” for your own family.

While Britta worked on preparing the food, Kaitlyn got to work on the table. I think you’ll agree it turned out beautifully.

Everything she did is very easy to replicate.

For the placemats she took inexpensive plastic placemats from the dollar store and using spray adhesive and glitter created these beautiful backdrops for the other table decor.

For a centerpiece, of sorts, she filled different sized mason jars with conversation hearts candy and red hots.

For a little extra sparkle she also glittered (is that a word? It should be!) a few of the mason jars. Each of the jars was then topped off with a white tealight. Super simple, yet so festive!

She ran ribbons of different colors, patterns, and widths, down the length of the table for an easy table runner.

Ordinary bottles of strawberry soda got spiffed us with a simple doily wrapped around them, tied with a piece of twine….pink and red dish towels were pressed into service as cloth napkins….and the whole space was crowned with a DIY mobile of hearts hung from the light fixture above the table….and a simple paper chain and bunting hung across the dining room window.
I just love the effect that all of these simple little touches created for our Valentine dinner!

Meanwhile, Britta was in the kitchen preparing our very simple but fun meal. On the menu:My Beeting Heart Salad, Heart-Shaped Potatoes, and Steak & Veggie Kabobs!

The salad was a simple pre-packaged salad of mixed greens topped with carrots, feta cheese, and sliced beets cut in the shape of hearts!

The potatoes were thick slices of red potatoes cut into heart-shapes, brushed with olive oil, and roasted in the oven on a greased cookie sheet for approximately 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

The kabobs were simply sirloin steak cut into cubes and threaded onto wooden skewers along with onions and peppers and then cooked on the grill.

And for dessert????

A quick and easy batch of rice krispie treats that we cut out with heart-shaped cookie cutters, dipped halfway in frosting and skewered with a cute arrow-shaped topper.

The last, but definitely not least, element to our dinner were the “Love Books” I created for each member of the family. They are based on the “compliment books” we used to do in school back in the day (not sure if they do them anymore, which is a shame.)

The idea goes like this: Each person gets a booklet with a cover page and a sheet for every other member of the family to write on. For example, our family now has a total of eight people….so each person’s booklet that I printed out had seven pages in it (not including the cover page.)

Throughout dinner we each took a few minutes to fill out a page in each person’s book and then when everyone had finished, we all got to read ours aloud. We had so much fun doing this….and now we have the books to keep and refer back to whenever we need a little love pick-me-up! :-)

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE PRINTABLE (cover)

CLICK HERE FOR FREE PRINTABLE (inside)

I hope some of these simple but creative ideas will help you plan your special day for you and your family!

Do you have any Valentine’s Day traditions?