Red hearts stuck to the walls, cheesy love lines written on candy hearts, cookies with red and white glazing, unhealthy amounts of candy lined up in an aisle.

Signs that Valentine’s Day is approaching.

And you know what that means: sharing candies with your classmates! Showing your special one your love through a gift of roses and a box of chocolates! Why not throw in a teddy bear as well! Going out for a lovely dinner or a movie!

Barf.

Mind you, Valentine’s Day is great. It’s a fun day to celebrate love, and it’s the only other day of the year (the other being Halloween) where store aisles are loaded with giant bags of candies.

Then you have those who don’t really care for it. Those who think that it is a waste of time and an exploitative act brought about by consumerism.

Well, they’re not wrong.

Go to your nearby Target and you’ll see aisles of teddy bears, chocolate boxes, and red hearts. Red, white and pink are the motifs, and the whole setup screams that this is what love is, and this is how you celebrate Valentine’s Day. You spend money on a sign of love that may not even last a few hours, and culture and consumerism push it.

Honestly, the only thing I look forward to on Valentine’s Day is the candy. Seeing the red clearance signs on rows upon rows of candy the day after sends my heart aflutter more than any person could.

But even that practice seems to be a product of consumerism: instead of buying unhealthy amounts of candy in season, I wait until the day after to do so, because I know it will be cheaper.

Isn’t every day Valentine’s Day? I don’t tell my friends that I love them only once a year, and I certainly don’t buy unhealthy amounts of candy for myself only on Valentine’s Day.

The consumerist side of the celebration envelopes the “true” meaning of Valentine’s Day. You can’t celebrate Christmas if you don’t get this a certain gift for your kids. Remember to look at the list of recommended anniversary gifts before you buy something for your significant other. While the Thanksgiving meal remains a staple in American households, what are the chances that Black Friday deals aren’t brought up during it?

Buying things for others shouldn’t be our main way of showing affection for others. Instead, the best gift should be time; and while it is great that there is a full 24 hours in a year to celebrate the act of love, it shouldn’t be confined to only those hours.

Sometimes, we don’t realize that we celebrate Valentine’s Day every day, and that we don’t have to celebrate only the love with a significant other. We celebrate the essence of Valentine’s Day when we give our time to those we care about and tell friends and family that we love them. We celebrate it by putting ourselves into the lives of the people we love.

Love shouldn’t only be shown through tangible objects one day out of 365. But if you want, go ahead and buy that box of chocolate or stuffed animal for the one you love. Just don’t forget to show him/her/them love for the other 364 days of the year.