One Valentine's Day a few years ago, Mary Luz's husband made the mistake of buying her a DVD copy of The Notebook. The plan was to have a romantic dinner and then snuggle up on the sofa to watch the chick flick about a man who falls in love with a woman who eventually suffers from Alzheimer's disease. The evening did not have much of a happy ending.
“We watched this movie and I'm bawling,” says Luz, a Toronto-based food writer.
Having learned a lesson, the couple will this year be veering well away from the traditional ways of celebrating the day – romantic dinners, roses and all the other clichés of the Hallmark holiday. Instead, they have signed up for a cooking class that will see them learning to make a five-course Tuscan meal.
Many Canadians don't seem able or willing to think outside the box of chocolates when it comes to Valentine's Day. A recent survey conducted on behalf of MasterCard Canada found that 32 per cent of respondents plan on going out for a romantic dinner and 30 per cent plan on giving candy. But there are plenty of ways of getting off the beaten track. And those who do will enjoy the rewards of their creativity, says Kim Hughes, a dating and relationships expert at Lavalife.com.
“The traditional is just that – traditional. It's always fun to do something that's a little bit different,” she adds.
From cooking classes to sports pursuits, there are indeed a wide range of activities that couples can explore on Valentine's Day.
Eric Furlotte, general manager of Cliffhanger, a Vancouver-based climbing gym, expects plenty of couples to come and hit the wall tomorrow. Those couples will probably include experienced climbers and newbies alike, Furlotte says. Whatever the experience level, he feels the activity is a perfect way for couples to put their relationship to the test.
“One of the basics of climbing is that you're relying on a partner,” he says. “You need trust, you need support and you need communication. Without those three things, your relationship is in the toilet and your climbing is in the toilet.”
Candace Cooke, meanwhile, is ready to bend over backward for her husband on Valentine's Day. The pair is going to take a couples yoga class at Yoga Santosha in Calgary.
She expects that doing the downward dog will be romantically uplifting. “It'll be a neat way to connect,” the 35-year-old says, adding that she and her husband have typically gone out for dinner on Valentine's Day.
It's that new and heightened sense of connection that attracts most couples to unusual ways of marking Valentine's Day.
Of course, the benefits of how a couple chooses to celebrate can go far beyond merely learning a new skill or sharing a little quality time with each other, says Vanessa Yeung, the chef and owner of Aphrodite Cooks, a Toronto-based company that is offering a Valentine's Day cooking class.
“Hopefully,” she says, “whatever heat is generated in the kitchen will carry on for the rest of the evening.”
