11 Ways to Celebrate Valentine’s Day in the Workplace

Valentine’s Day is usually associated with romance, chocolate, and flowers, but some workplaces also use it to celebrate employees and show them some much-needed appreciation. (And maybe some chocolate too—it’s never a bad time for chocolate!) 

Since employee engagement in the US fell to a 10-year low in 2024, it might not be a bad idea to use Valentine’s Day to recognize your team in a fun and appropriate way. By making your team feel appreciated, you can increase engagement—research shows that engaged employees are more productive and less likely to seek out a new job.

Why celebrating Valentine’s Day at work can be a great opportunity

If you’re considering making a day of it in your office, here are five ways celebrating Valentine’s Day can positively impact your team:

• Improve camaraderie: Celebrating together and engaging in joint activities (virtual works too!) can boost team morale, spark a feeling of togetherness, and make employees feel more engaged.
• Promote appreciation: Employees feel rewarded and motivated when someone takes the extra effort to let them know they're appreciated.
• Increase positivity: Simple team activities, like decorating cookies and playing bingo, can decrease stress levels, encourage creativity, and most importantly, increase positivity in the workplace.
• Encourage a caring environment: By celebrating Valentine’s Day in an inclusive way, teams can foster a caring environment, where individuals feel psychologically safe.
• Brighten the mood: This time of year can be particularly challenging for many people, falling shortly after Blue Monday. By organizing some fun Valentine’s Day celebrations, you can lift the mood and spread some cheer.

..And why it's important to be thoughtful

For every person who loves to celebrate this holiday, there’s another person who has had less-than-ideal experiences in the workplace around Valentine’s Day. 

The specifics of the horror stories differ (a male manager leaving a single red rose on the desk of every female employee, being the only employee who doesn’t get a valentine, an employee being the only singleton at a work event turned romantic couples’ evening, giving out candy and having a coworker confess their crush…). And of course, many office Valentine’s Days end with nothing more than a full stomach and some treats to take home. 

But let’s be real: the potential for workplace celebrations of a typically romantic holiday to go astray is higher than those for, say, President’s Day. 

However, if you stick to a few simple guidelines when celebrating Valentine’s Day at work—if you choose to celebrate it at all—your odds for creating an inclusive, thoughtful work event are pretty high.  

• Include everyone, whether that means your whole team, your whole department, or your whole company. This isn’t a holiday where you can take the chance of leaving someone out! Check all your lists twice. 
• Being inclusive also means putting serious thought into things like dietary restrictions, remote and hybrid employee inclusion, and any other considerations that might make employees feel left out. 
• While love is lovely, any workplace celebrations should be completely devoid of anything romantic: no red roses, for sure, but also steer clear of anything celebrating coupledom or romantic love (again, it’s not inclusive!). Stick to appreciation, connection, and platonic bonds—that gives you plenty to work with. 

If you’re unsure if your planned celebration is a good idea, run it by a few trusted colleagues to see how they react. You can read the room and see if something needs to be tweaked so everyone has a good time. Think of it as like a mini-Employee Appreciation Day rather than an extension of a romantic experience: celebrating your coworkers with treats, time together, and maybe a mini-massage too. 

11 Valentine’s Day celebration ideas for the workplace

If you’d like to celebrate the day in the workplace with your team, here are 11 inclusive Valentine’s activities to enjoy the holiday at work. They’re just a springboard for inspiration, so feel free to improvise using the guidelines for a successful celebration!

1. Host or order breakfast

Grab some bagels, fruit, and pastries for the office, or order your team their favorite breakfast dishes if you're working remotely. If you choose the office route, decorate a table with a Valentine’s Day tablecloth, flowers, and scattered paper hearts. 

2. Share goody bags

Fill goody bags for every employee with candy, gift cards, and handwritten notes. Add some sustainable company swag while you're at it. Don’t forget the dietary restrictions and preferences of the team!

3. Decorate the office (or home office)

Pinterest is calling. Place pink, red, and white balloon bouquets around the office, or ship them to your employees' homes. Share heart decals for computer monitors and streamers to decorate chairs. Take it a step further by ordering edible flower arrangements!

4. Gift candy mason jars

Leave mason jars filled with candy treats on desks as a nice morning surprise, or send them to your team. It's easy: fill a mason jar with candy and chocolates, cover the top with a Valentine’s Day cupcake wrapper, and add a colorful ribbon. Attach a fun note, and place a sticker on the jar with each person’s name to make it personal.

P.S. You don't need a holiday like Employee Appreciation Day to appreciate your employees! Bonusly makes it easy to appreciate and recognize all of your people, every day.

5. Start late

Invite your team to start work later than normal to focus on themselves, partners, friends, or family. You’ll find your team more refreshed and ready to tackle the day. 

6. Host a tea party

Whether it's in-person or virtual, bring heart-shaped cookies, prepare a selection of teas, and break out the cucumber sandwiches! Decorate a table with a red tablecloth and scattered hearts. Schedule the tea party for the early afternoon, when everyone’s energy is getting low. Take into account any dietary restrictions and preferences.

7. Make charitable donations

Create a list of five charities, like the Human Rights Campaign, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Water.org, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and The Humane Society. Place a jar for each charity in the lunchroom along with a short description of the charity. Give each employee a red paper heart with ‘$10’ written on it. Ask everyone to put the paper heart in the jar of their preferred charity to donate $10 from company funds. Or do a poll in Slack or Teams for hybrid and geographically-distributed teams.  

Did we mention, Bonusly users have donated over $2,000,000 via our Reward Catalog?

8. Set up an Appreciation Bulletin Board

Set up a bulletin board, spread out markers, bring push pins, and hand out paper hearts with the following request: ‘Share some ways you’ve felt appreciated at work’. Leave the board up for the next week to encourage peer recognition. You can also create a virtual board!

9. Decorate your own cookies

Bake or buy heart-shaped sugar cookies (or alternatives based on dietary restrictions/preferences), and place them in the lunchroom for employees to decorate throughout the day. Provide sprinkles, different colors of icing tubes, and candy for decorating. Offer cellophane bags and colorful ribbons for those who want to take their cookies home or gift them. 

Alternatively, bake together with your team using cookie-baking kits! This option provides a great little break for remote teams (and a sweet treat to enjoy too). 

10. Recognize great work publicly

Consider using an employee recognition and rewards program like Bonusly to show your peers appreciation publicly and offer your team a huge catalog of rewards. Remind your team that Valentine’s Day is a great day to share their appreciation with colleagues. 💚

11. Provide 15-minute massages

Bring in a professional masseuse or masseur, and offer 15-minute massages. Massages can reduce stress, improve morale, and decrease injuries. For remote and hybrid teams, you can send everyone a gift certificate for a local 

And don’t forget your remote workers! Send them an e-card, mail them a goody bag, and invite them to participate in Valentine’s Day activities using online video conferencing.

The takeaway

Celebrating Valentine’s Day in the office can be a little polarizing, much like the holiday itself. But that doesn’t mean you have to forgo the opportunity entirely to get your team together, to enjoy a little treat, and to show each other some appreciation and even some (platonic) love.  

Make this Valentine’s Day one that your team will remember and look forward to next year by using Bonusly.

This article was updated on February 6th, 2025, by Kathleen O'Donnell