Just as we managed to rid our pantries of all the holiday sweets and treats, Valentine’s Day and all its chocolate glory rolls in like a Oompa Loompa from Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory .

To minimize the amount of candy collected and consumed in one day, I decided to resist the temptation and not give into the sugar rush of sweet treat Valentines. When I made the decision to switch to non-candy Valentine’s Day cards years ago, my kids revolted and complained. The peer pressure of being the cool kid distributing delicious Valentine treats really had them worried that no one would like their non-candy cards. However, they discovered the opposite. To their surprise, their classmates LOVED the trinkets and toys.

Ever since we broke the candy mold and kicked the Valentine’s Day habit, my kids look forward to letting their creative juices flow with some dollar store treasures and toys paired with some great puns and play on words. Creating the Valentines is a team effort; my kids think of the wording and I design the cards in PicMonkey for them.

Non-Candy Valentine’s Day Treats

This year, my ten year old daughter chose to share pencils and heart-shaped sharpeners. She cleverly crafted a writing related card. “Let’s get “write” to the point. Happy Valentine’s Day!”

My five year old is T-Rex obsessed and for that, he wanted to share dinosaur erasers with his classmates. We rolled around a few ideas such as “My love for you will never become extinct.” But he preferred, “Hey Valentine! I think you’re DINO-MITE!”

We then found some fun gliders in the party goods section of the dollar store. “Valentine, You make my heart SOAR!” seemed like a top gun pun for this treasure.

Last year, I found packs of crayons on clearance and Liam shared them with his preschool class. “Valentine, You color my world beautiful.”

Crayon Valentines – Run DMT

And finally, since GoGo squeeZ is a popular healthy snack in the Run DMT house, we always have plenty on hand to share with friends at school for Valentine’s Day.

If you like any of these Valentine’s Day card designs, feel free to print them out. You can even download each image; then copy and paste it into a document to resize them using the sizing tools in your favorite desktop publisher program.

What are some of you favorite non-candy Valentine’s Day treats?

For more Valentine’s Day “pinspirations”, check out some of our previous Valentine’s Day designs here and here.

Also, follow my Valentine’s Day Pinterest Board.