Three Tips to a Singles' Solidarity Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is marketed as the most romantic day of the year. Department stores, discount stores, even gas stations and convenience stores get in on the action, selling millions of dollars in pink stuffed animals, pink frosted cookies, pink candies and many other assorted heart-shaped baubles.

But for those who don't have anyone to be romantic with, Valentine's Day can be nothing but one more agonizing reminder of their solitude. Here are three tips for escaping the Valentine's Day hub-bub.

Girls'/Guys' Night Out - While a seemingly obvious answer, probably seven out of every ten lonely onlys sit at home, alone, on Valentine's Day (night) and try to forget that it's even happening. Instead, gather up some similarly single friends and go out. Have dinner, see a movie, grab a few drinks at the bar, go bowling. Or rent movies (perhaps a Godfather marathon?), make dinner at home and have a girls'/guys' night in. Either way, you will have more fun than if you were spending the evening alone, watching bad romance movies on cable, crying into your Rocky Road, and it might be so much fun that it becomes habitual.

Give Valentines to your (single) friends - Make a kind of sport of the day. While the couples of the world are spending their hard earned money on sappy Valentine's Day cards, you can save a few bucks and treat several friends instead. Make a list of all of your single friends then buy each of them a box of Necco conversation hearts and adorn it with a card from a box of children's Valentine cards. Or make them homemade CDs filled with "better off without him/her" songs.

Throw an anti-Valentine party - Decorate with black balloons and streamers. Bake heart-shaped cookies and frost them with black icing. Play the CDs you made for your friends in the previous suggestion. Invite your guests to buy "white elephant" type gifts that relate to any holiday that isn't Valentine's Day. By February 14, most of the clearance aisle Christmas paraphernalia has been snatched up but craft stores often have a limited supply of do-it-yourself ornaments year-round. And by this time, stores have already started stocking mountains of greeneries for St. Patrick's Day as well as Easter goodies by the truck load.

One key ingredient to making a miserably single Valentine's Day into an enjoyable experience, is friends who are also not part of couples. Singles solidarity is the secret to surviving Valentine's Day alone.