1-800-FLOWERS.COM For Valentine’s, Let’s Celebrate Love in All Its Forms

From: 1-800-FLOWERS.COM - Saturday Feb 04, 2023 04:05 pm

1800Flowers.com

Valentine’s Day is a time to uniquely share our love with those who share their love with us.

Love comes in many forms, whether it’s between spouses or soon-to-be spouses, parents and children, or among our friends. And Valentine’s Day is a great reason to reach out to all the significant people in your life and express how you feel.

Sometimes, however, life can get in the way. Anything from an increased workload at the office to a certain football game just two days before on Feb. 12 can derail the best intentions to do something special for the people you love on Feb. 14.

With more than 45 years in the flower and gift industry, we understand. The weeks before Valentine’s Day are among our busiest times of the year. Everyone around here works around the clock – including weekends – to ensure your expressions of love are delivered on time.

How do we celebrate Valentine's Day? We turn it into a weeks-long community event at our offices. Workstations are adorned with glittery hearts and pink-and-red lights. Valentine’s cards and other words of love and encouragement are exchanged. And flowers – lots of flowers – adorn desks around the office. And it’s only Feb. 5!

On the afternoon of the big day, our colleagues find even more flowers on desks in the form of boutonnieres they can wear. As the last orders go out, the entire team comes together for a celebratory meal.

Extending Valentine’s Day celebrations

We are very lucky to have compassionate spouses who see very little of us in the weeks and days leading up to Valentine’s Day. It’s always special when they come into the office to celebrate another successful season with our team.

Jim also always sends Cheryl's cookies to each of his three kids as well as to all seven grandkids. He makes sure to send them early, so with a little self-control on the part of the families, they can have them around on Valentine’s Day. It’s a small but great way to make sure everyone in the family knows they are loved on the day to celebrate love.

Last year, we wrote about celebrating all the different kinds of love on Valentine’s Day, and extending the celebration beyond your special someone to your whole family and friends is just one way. Whether you call it Valentine’s Day, Galentine’s Day, or even Palentine’s Day , to us, these are all about celebrating the different types of love in our lives.

Random Acts of Kindness

Three days after Valentine’s Day, we will have another reason to celebrate: Random Acts of Kindness Day on Feb. 17. The occasion was started in 1995 by the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation in Denver, Colorado, with the goal to “make kindness the norm."

The idea behind the day is to encourage people to look outside themselves and do something helpful for their fellow man, and then carry that spirit throughout the rest of the year.

Performing random acts of kindness, at any time of year, can make a difference not only for someone else, but for ourselves as well.

According to Sally Macaluso, an early childhood educator and founder of the parenting resource blog Tenderhearted Teacher, kindness is a critical aspect of social-emotional development. “Teaching a child kindness, compassion, empathy, mindfulness, and other social-emotional learning skills in early childhood can help them to continue these practices in adulthood.

“While kindness isn’t a time-specific concept, parents and caregivers can certainly use Random Acts of Kindness Day as a jumping-off point to talk to children about what it means to be kind,” she says.

We would like to hear from you about what it means to be kind. In a few words, send us a story about how being kind or receiving an act of kindness has affected you. And since kindness should last all year round, we will feature these stories in upcoming Celebration Pulse letters.

Finding the perfect roses

Have you ever wondered about the journey roses take before they arrive in the hands of your loved ones and how we pick the best flowers? To answer the questions, our colleagues at 1-800-Flowers.com’s Petal Talk spoke with Vice President of Procurement Kevin Cochran and Katya Chaparro, director of quality assurance.

Our flowers travel thousands of miles over a very short period of time before they’re delivered. At every stage of the process, our blooms are checked, rechecked, and kept at optimal temperatures so that they arrive fresh and last long in vases.

Read the article and the accompanying Q&A with Kevin and Katya for a behind-the-scenes look at our operations and to learn more about the importance of relationships in ensuring our flowers are worthy of the smiles we guarantee.

Thank you, Kevin and Katya, for sharing your story during one of the busiest times of the year!

“Meet the Breeds”

Dane came in search of the best canine breed to complement his household of cats. Jason and his son spent the day getting very close and personal with their favorite breeds (Bernese mountain dog and corgi, respectively). And Lisa came to learn about the best breeds for her family’s young children.

Our community was joined by more than 20,000 other dog lovers during the American Kennel Club’s “Meet the Breeds” educational canine showcase. More than 130 breeds – from Afghan Hounds to Yorkshire Terriers – were at the event, which took place Jan. 28-29 at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City.

Everyone had a chance to meet and interact with the various breeds, learn about their unique personalities, and talk to breed experts and owners about what types of dogs might work best for their lifestyles. There were demonstrations, games, an art station, and photo opportunities for the entire family.

Thank you to our friends at the American Kennel Club for hosting such a great event!

Last week on Celebrations Chatter, we spoke with Ken Langone about his philanthropy supporting NYU Health System as it expands its medical research and education. To round out our health series, Jim sits down with his friend, Dr. Robert Grossman, the CEO of NYU Langone Health and dean of NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

Dr. Grossman oversaw the expansion and evolution of NYU Langone’s facilities, implementing the historic and unprecedented initiative of providing tuition-free medical education for all current and future students in its MD degree program.

“I’ve always admired Dr. Grossman for his leadership and ability to achieve those big hairy audacious goals,” Jim says. “He manages over 45,000 employees, students, and volunteers who care for over 100,000 patients each year. In our interview together, we talk about some of the problems facing the healthcare system today, the effects of long COVID, and even what it was like managing NYU Langone in the face of natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy.”

Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and please share your thoughts at chatter@celebrations.com

The Business Page: The Atlas Global Economic Update presented by Worth

Last week, Jim moderated an insightful discussion on the economic outlook for 2023. He was joined by the two stars at Atlas Merchant Capital – Founding Partner and CEO Bob Diamond and Operating Partner Larry Kantor.

Jim likens the quarterly conversations to an old episode of The Twilight Zone in which a man gets tomorrow’s newspaper today. You can watch the replay for a glimpse at what the future might bring to the global economy…and our wallets.

1-800-FLOWERS.COM Newsletters

1-800-FLOWERS.COM For Valentine’s, Let’s Celebrate Love in All Its Forms