What to write in a Valentine’s card

The difficulty with a Valentine’s card is that the shop-bought ones have used up all the big words, so writing one feels like competing with them. Don’t. The most effective Valentine’s line is small and specific — something they do, something you noticed, something only the two of you would understand. Save the declarations for out loud.

Warm

Friendly, unfussy, safe with almost anybody.

• Love you more every year, which is becoming inconvenient.
• Happy Valentine’s Day. Still you, still this, still glad.
• To my favourite person, on a day that charges extra for flowers.
• Happy Valentine’s. I’d choose you on an ordinary Tuesday too.
• You’re my best thing. Happy Valentine’s Day.

Funny

A joke with affection behind it. Read the room first.

• Happy Valentine’s Day. You’re stuck with me and the receipts prove it.
• Roses are expensive, this card was cheaper. I love you.
• Happy Valentine’s. I tolerate your side of the bed being warmer.
• You, me, and a table booked suspiciously late. Happy Valentine’s.
• Happy Valentine’s Day. Thank you for not reading my search history.

Heartfelt

For the people you would actually say this to out loud.

• Loving you has been the easiest thing I’ve done. Happy Valentine’s Day.
• You make the ordinary days good, which is the part nobody puts on a card.
• Happy Valentine’s. I don’t say it often enough, and I mean it every time.
• Thank you for the small, unglamorous, constant things. I love you.
• Of all the people, it was always going to be you.

Simple

When short is the right answer, and it often is.

• Happy Valentine’s Day.
• Love you.
• Yours — happy Valentine’s.
• Happy Valentine’s, with love.
• To you, today and the rest of them.

What to avoid

• Don’t use a poem you did not write. They can tell.
• Don’t make a joke about the day being commercial inside the card you bought for it.
• Don’t escalate — a first Valentine’s card is not the place for a declaration.
• Don’t sign it with your full name. It has happened.