Last Minute Love
Women start planning Valentine’s Day 5 days before men, who leave it till the day before!
The most romantic day of the year beckons: yes, Christmas is barely over and already red coloured cards, heart shaped chocolates, and a plethora of plush cuddly toys are lining the shelves of most major retailers. However, you’d think we Brits are allergic to love, judging by the results of the latest survey by wood-burning stove experts, Glowing Embers. They also conducted research into Valentine’s Day Google Trends to discover how much effort we Brits are putting into Valentine’s Day, including whether we think our significant others are doing enough!
From hopeless romantics to self confessed skeptics, when it comes to love, everyone has an opinion. Perhaps not as shockingly though, the research into Google Trends showed that men don’t take Valentine’s Day as seriously as women do. Whilst women start searching for gifts on the 8th of February men often leave it till the day before. Also, women have a much higher search rate on Google for ‘Valentine’s gifts’ then men do, the research found- showing they put in a lot more thought into this! But we secretly knew that anyway, didn’t we…?
A handwritten love letter, a candlelit dinner or a piece of jewellery and flowers can go a long way. However, the survey revealed over a half of us feel our partner doesn’t make this kind of effort for us at Valentine’s. And women particularly think their blokes could do with putting a bit more hard work into it! Okay, so we don’t expect them to jump out of a red velvet cake covered in cream or anything (though that could be interesting…), but a token gesture – even just remembering the day – at least would be nice! And beware if you take your partner seriously when he/she says ‘oh, don’t get me anything for Valentine’s.’ It’s a lie. Only 10.8% of Brits think that just receiving a plain V‑Day card is enough, whilst almost one in 5 (17.3%) feel a weekend away is the least we, or our partner, could do…
Now, a handwritten letter is one thing but if you think you can even get away with not spending much – even if the gift doesn’t look like you didn’t – don’t! Almost 1 in 5 Brits admit to being offended at the idea of our partner searching for ‘Cheap Valentine’s gifts’ online, with more men being particularly upset that their love can be measured by a £5.99 teddy bear or a £3.99 box of chocs, than the women…best to spend more than less, ladies!
When asked ‘what is the best Valentine’s gift you could receive from someone?’ over a third of us said that a weekend away was the most special, followed by flowers and a handmade gift. It seems the sentiment of something homemade is lost on the majority. Whilst the women agreed with a weekend away, interestingly the men said they’d rather receive nothing, as it’s just a waste of money (duly noted, boys!), followed by flowers. And finally, if you’re single on Valentine’s Day, it’s tempting to bury your head in the sand and ignore the whole thing; but if you don’t, Google Trends found that you’re more likely to leave it till the day itself to search for ‘Valentine’s Day for singles’ online.
