Chapter IX: A Valentine Entertainment with Original Valentines

THE fun of the Valentine party begins with the invitations, which are in the shape of a heart. The message on the outside (Fig. 103) leads to the opening of the invitation (Fig. 104), and on the inside are found the time and place where the frolic is to take place and the names of those who are to give the party.

To make the design, fold through the centre a square piece of paper measuring five and one-half inches along each edge. Fold this oblong crosswise through its centre, and you will make a small square of four layers of paper. On one side of this square mark the outline of a heart, allowing the corner of the small four-folded square, which is also the centre of the large square of paper before it is folded, to form the point of the heart (Fig. 105). Cut out the top of the heart through all four layers of paper, also the curves of the sides of the heart; cut these only part way down as shown by A and A (Fig. 105). The dotted lines in Fig. 104 represent creases.

Answers to the invitations might read:

“My dear Miss Darling and Miss Love, too,
I’ve opened your heart and will come to you
On the day you’ve appointed, the pleasure is mine,
And I hope you’ll accept me as your Valentine.”

Make as many valentines as there are guests, that all may be sure of receiving at least one. Address each of the girls’ valentines “To My Sweetheart,” and each of the boys’ valentines, “To My Valentine.”

Let either a girl or a boy be selected to run

=The Post-Office=

which you can make of a clothes-horse draped with sheets. Place a table inside across the opening, and on the table, resting on a pile of large books, stand an empty wooden box minus top and bottom. Set it up on one end to serve as the post-office window. The table and space on each side of the window should be screened with sheets. Across the outside top of the window fasten a pasteboard sign marked in large letters:

ST. VALENTINE’S POST-OFFICE

and decorate the white sheets covering the clothes-horse with red paper hearts of various sizes fastened on singly, doubly and in festoons. On the table at the right-hand side of the window place the girls’ valentines and on the left-hand side of the window the boys’ valentines.

Ask all the girls to form in line and march around the room to the post-office, while some one plays a suitable lively air on the piano. Each girl in turn must stop at the post-office window, where a box of St. Valentine’s stamps is set before her with one of the boys’ valentines. She must close her eyes and take one stamp from the box, then open her eyes, read the stamp and on it sign her name at the right-hand corner, then fasten the stamp on the valentine with paste given her by the postmaster, and move onward to give place to the next girl in line.

When all the boys’ valentines have been stamped, the girls take their seats and the boys form in line and stamp the girls’ valentines in the same manner.

=The Valentine Stamps=

should be previously prepared. They are made uniform in size of small squares of white writing paper, on which is written any kind of a wish which may add to the fun, such as:

I wish you would smile at me.
I wish you would sing me a song.
I wish you would tell me a funny story.
I wish you would sit by my side now.
I wish you would walk around the room with me.
I wish you would recite poetry to me.

When entering the room each guest is given a card. On one card is written,

=“When the Bell Rings=

once go to the post-office”; on another, “When the bell rings twice go to the post-office,” and so on, each card designating a specified number of rings. The postmaster sounds the bell at intervals, giving a different number of taps at each ring, until every girl and boy is supplied with a valentine; then each boy seeks the girl who has signed the stamp on his valentine and she asks that the wish be fulfilled. The request is, of course, laughingly and courteously granted. The valentines being sealed with St. Valentine’s stamps, the mystery of the sentiment enclosed cannot be revealed until the wish on the stamp is granted, and neither the girls nor the boys are aware of the contents of the valentines they stamp. Later in the evening the girls find the boys who have signed their stamps, and then, entering into the spirit of the fun, they grant the boys’ wishes as written on their stamps.

The guests may bring extra valentines made especially for and directed to either hostess or guests. These are not sent through St. Valentine’s post-office. The hostess keeps one door of the parlor closed for the benefit of those desiring to send special valentines. A sign posted upon it reads:

CUPID’S DOOR

and quantities of paper flowers with gilded pasteboard hearts, bows and arrows adorn it, giving it a very festive appearance. Each guest is at liberty at any time during the evening to slip from the company, make her way through the hall to Cupid’s door, slide her valentine under the door, give a quick knock and scamper off before she is caught. Only the hostess has the privilege of opening Cupid’s door, and to her belongs the pleasure of delivering these valentines to the various guests for whom they are intended.

There are many styles of valentines which you can make. Fig. 106 is effective and requires only a few moments to manufacture. For

=The Heart Valentine=

use a plain white card about four and one-half inches long and three and one-half inches wide for the foundation. Make four hearts graduated in size, the largest of red paper, the next gold, then green, and the smallest of blue paper. Cut a small slit in each heart a short distance from the top centre (Fig. 106). String the hearts on a narrow ribbon and tie one end of the ribbon through two slits cut in the lower left-hand corner of the card, and run the other end of the ribbon through two slits in the upper right-hand corner, then tie. Write across the top of the card, “Make your choice.”

Beneath it write this verse:

“The Red Hearts take without return,
The Green with envy always burn,
The Blue are cold and hard and small,
The Gold ask nothing but give all.”

=The World Valentine=

is another design. For this use a circular piece of white paper about four inches in diameter. Shade it around the edge a little to give an idea of roundness (Fig. 107), then with ink draw on the disk the outlines of North and South America to represent the world (Fig. 108). Paint the continent a light yellow. Put the lettering on in bright colors, placing an awl drawn in outline (Fig. 109) and a figure 2 in the position shown in Fig. 110. Paint the awl red.

This message is a rebus and reads: “You are all the world to your Valentine.”

=Next Comes the Daisy Valentine=

(Fig. 111). On a piece of paper six inches long and three and a half inches wide draw a circle near the top, making it not quite three inches in diameter. Paint the circle bright green as a background for the white daisy. Make the daisy of three or four layers of white tissue paper folded like Fig. 112 and cut along the scalloped outline shown in Fig. 112. Unfold the petals and they will be like Fig. 113; but as the number should be odd, you must cut off one of the petals. Sew the centre of the daisy to the centre of the green circle, then paste a small yellow paper disk (Fig. 114) over the stitches. Paint a small red heart at each upper corner of the valentine and paint a narrow blue ribbon tied to each heart and looped between, as in Fig. 111. If the valentine is intended for a girl write under the green circle in red letters:

“Pluck the daisy petals off, saying first: ‘He loves me.’
With the next: ‘He loves me not.’
Then again: ‘He loves me.’
With the fourth: ‘He loves me not.’
Going on: ‘He loves me,’
Till the last when torn away
Tells you this: ‘He loves you.’”

When the valentine is for a boy substitute the pronoun She in place of He.

=Love’s Palette,=

the last valentine (Fig. 115), is to be made of light cardboard cut in the shape of a palette. The palette should be about six inches high and four and one-half inches wide at the broadest part. Beginning near the top, cut short slits in pairs in the palette, placing the pairs one inch and a half apart (Fig. 116). Get a quarter of a yard each of narrow blue, red, white, yellow, pink and green ribbon, and slipping the ends through the slits in the palette tie them in bows as shown in Fig. 115. In the centre write in red ink, “Love’s Palette,” and on the back the following lines:

“This ribbon blue means I am true.
The knot of red says, ‘Will you wed?’
The bow of white, ‘You’re pure as light.’
The yellow, too, means thoughts of you.
The tie of pink is love’s own link.
The loops of green say, ‘Youth so keen
Must conquer all and win his queen.’”