Valentine’s Day: So Many Ways to Celebrate

Valentine’s Day is one of the biggest gift-giving holidays of the year, according to the National Retail Federation, which last year estimated spending at an all-time high of at least $17.6 billion. This week, several indie booksellers share their plans to celebrate with customers in unique and literary ways that will boost sales for this very sweet holiday.

For the past few years, Housing Works in New York City has hosted a week of Valentine’s-related programming, “which has been wonderfully popular,” said Amanda Bullock, the store’s director of public programming.

Last year’s calendar included a classical music performance paired with an author appearance and an interactive screening of the bookstore classic You’ve Got Mail. The year before, there was “speed shrinking,” a speed dating event with love experts. “We keep it varied to have something for everyone while staying uniquely Housing Works,” said Bullock.

This year, the bookstore’s Valentine’s Day festivities include a mixture of events — some designed by Housing Works, and some by organizers who approached the bookstore looking for a venue. The week of events kicks off withThe OkCupid Show: Stories of Love, Sex, and the Internet. The storytelling show featuring New York comedians, writers, and actors has run in other venues and was looking to expand, said Bullock. This will be followed by “Swoon!: The Recital,” a new literary series that asks readers to answer the question: What text would you choose to burn into your brain if you could choose anything at all?

Housing Works will also host a poetry slam with the theme “Love Hurts,” which has sold out in previous years, and a speed dating event with CoverSpy “for those who’d rather be judged by their book cover.” Lastly, for the third year in a row, Housing Works will host a performance by the country band Ménage à Twang.

“As soon as the last newsletter went out, Twitter started getting excited about it!” said Bullock. “I think we have a really strong week of programming this year. I expect it will be bigger and better than ever.” The store’s literary speed dating event is already almost sold out, so Bullock is trying to open up some more tickets.

Since Housing Works is a non-profit bookstore, it doesn’t have a budget for advertising and relies primarily on word of mouth to promote events. Bullock posts details to the store’s Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook accounts as well as on in-store signage. The store created a discount code for the speed dating that Bullock shared with a couple of other sites and asked them to tweet or post about it, “which helped a lot,” she said.

Bullock said it’s fitting for bookstores to celebrate Valentine’s Day “because books make us all better lovers … and because book nerds are my favorite people, I love excuses to hang out with them and force them to try to date each other, it’s so much fun.”

Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, California has several events planned during the week before Valentine’s Day, starting with a kids’ Valentine’s Day craft event, where young customers are invited to make several different things to give to the special people in their lives.  “The kids always have so much fun at the holiday craft events, and so do our employees,” said Rachel Ormiston, digital media coordinator at Vroman’s.

The store is also hosting an event with author Lynn Chang, whose new book, The Break-Up Activity Book, features clever and silly crafts and things to do when one finds him- or herself suddenly single. Vroman’s has held similar events in the past, as well as some anti-Valentine’s Day events that are popular with single people and groups of friends.

The store promotes store happenings via social media and includes them in its newsletter and weekly e-mail updates. It also sends an e-mail full of last-minute gift ideas.  “A surprising number of people don’t remember that it’s Valentine’s Day, so we help them find a great gift so they don’t have to scramble at the last minute,” Ormiston said.

Vroman’s offers complimentary gift wrapping and small Valentine’s Day-themed gift baskets filled with books and other small gifts. The “Romantic” gift basket includes a copy of Shakespeare’s Love Sonnets and gummy hearts, while the basket for those who are a bit skeptical of the holiday includes The Onion’s Love, Sex, and Other Natural Disasters and sour lemon candies. “These were a big hit, so we started creating them for other holidays, as well.  Sometimes, customers give us a price point and some interests and we put a basket together just for them!”

“Bookstores are filled with shelf after shelf of love stories,” said Ormiston. “We know that people who look for Valentine’s Day gifts at our store are looking for something exciting and different, so it’s a wonderful opportunity to show people that Valentine’s gifts are about more than fancy dinners and flowers and chocolate-giving, sometimes a book is a perfect way to tell someone that you love them!”

Valentine’s Day can be a big day for children’s booksellers, too. Based on its hugely successful Halloween events and activities for children, The Curious George Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is expecting a crowd for its Valentine’s Day festivities. More than 100 people attended the Halloween event, said Broche Fabian, the store’s buying and events manager. Sales on [that day] would have been better had the store not been so crowded. People were literally unable to move at times.” Learning from that experience, Curious George has scheduled three different times for its Valentine’s Day festivities, to which customers must RSVP. Each hour, a storytime will take place, after which each child will get to make a valentine to exchange with Curious George, who will be handing out valentines personalized for each child. Curious George will also be available for photo opportunities for customers who have not RSVP’d for the event.

 “We love big holidays like this,” said Fabian. The customers understand the theme, we have books and toys to display that are subject-specific, and it provides us a great opportunity to interact with our community. There are so many different types of love to celebrate on Valentine’s Day, with a book out there for each type.”