Gift Giving Guy

You’ve heard love is patient; love is kind. This year, love is practical. With the soured economy, the National Retail Federation predicts Americans will spend $20 less on average on Valentine’s Day gifts than last year. And the NRF survey found more will exchange Valentine’s Day greeting cards this year (58 percent) than in 2008.

If you are giving a Valentine’s Day card, consider sending it with a special postmark. Loveland, Colorado’s post office offers a Valentine re-mailing program, a tradition since 1947. First, buy the card in advance so you can mail it out the first week of February. Seal the card in an envelope with your funny Valentine’s address and finish it with a Valentine’s stamp. Now put that envelope into a larger 1st class envelope with the right postage and mail it to:

Postmaster
Attention: Valentines
446 E. 29th St.
Loveland, CO 80537-9998

Loveland’s post office volunteers hand-stamp a love-poem postmark on thousands of Valentines and send them to sweethearts. I treated my wife to this tradition while we were dating, and she still has the envelope. Kudos to author Michael Webb, who introduced me to this idea in his book, The RoMANtics Guide.