By Katelyn Fry

Love is in the air! This Valentine’s Day, make the little loves in your life really feel the love you have for them with these eight adorable ideas!  

1. Send Lockets of Love

You don’t see locket pendants very often these days which makes this gift all the more special. Pick one out that you think best fits your niece or nephew - for a niece, a necklace or charm bracelet, and for a nephew, a key chain locket may do. Include a photo of the two of you inside. Why not get one for yourself to match so you can carry each other wherever you go.

2. Design a Flower Love Album

Flowers are a huge part of Valentine’s Day. This year, spice up this tradition by using dried flowers, instead. With flowers and a blank photo album, place a flower in one of the photo spaces and add a note for your niece and nephew. The flowers will stay preserved in the album and last forever, just like your love will!

3. Have a Date Night

Surprise your nieces and nephews by picking them up from school and having an Auntie Date night! It can be as simple as dinner and a movie - or whatever they’d like to do! Make them feel as special as they are in your eyes. 

4. Make Personalized M&M’s

These little chocolate candies are really feeling the love this year. At MyMMs.com, you can now choose any color you like, upload an image of you and your nieces and nephews, or a little note of your choice (as many as you’d like), and voila! In a matter of days you can have adorable, delicious and customized M&Ms delivered at your doorstep as a gift for your little loves! Maybe drop them off the day before Valentine’s Day so they can bring them to share at school and be the talk of the classroom! Or, send them directly as a surprise for your little loves a distance away.

5. Record a Love Message Plush

You can tell your little nieces and nephews you love them on Valentine's Day - and any day - with a recordable plush animal from BEARegards!

6. Name a Star

Any child would get a kick out of this super unique gift. Through Star-Registration.com, you can buy a star that is guaranteed to be visible in the night sky and name it whatever you’d like! Name it after your niece or nephew, or the two of you, or even buy two stars orbiting each other and you can each have your own! Upon buying a star you will be mailed a certificate with your names on it and a star chart designed specifically for you guys so you can find your star every night in seconds!

7. Create a Gift Basket

Use a wicker basket and fill it with all of the Valentine’s Day essentials. Gather some chocolate and other types of candy, other favorite snacks of theirs, and maybe a few little gifts like a coloring book, movie or a small toy.  And of course, a Valentine’s Day gift wouldn’t be complete without a Valentine’s Day card. You can either give it to them after school, or drop it off beforehand so they can wake up and start their day with your basket of love. Long Distance Auntie's can send it to nieces and nephews directly!

8. Plan a Cupid Scavenger Hunt

Instead of giving your nieces and nephews gifts all at once, have it last the whole day! Leave them little gifts and notes from “cupid” in their room, the bathroom, the kitchen, their backpack, notebooks, lunchbox, etc. Each note can have a tiny gift attached like a piece of candy or a flower or a teddy bear  - and potentially a clue leading to where to find the next one. You can make and hide as many as you want so that their Valentine’s Day experience lasts from the moment they wake up until it's time for bed (Yep, put a note under their pillow!)

Photo: elena.hramowa
Published: February 8, 2017