Valentine’s Day Games to Play With Your Little Sweethearts

Halloween has bobbing for apples. Christmas has the great gift swap. Hanukkah has the dreidel. So, what's the game that's most associated with Valentine's Day? There isn't really one. There are notable Valentine's desserts, some fun Valentine's Day crafts and DIY Valentine's Day cards to make, but there aren't really built-in games. That means if you want to do a family activity, it's harder work for you, but you get to be more creative. It's easy to put a love-themed twist on some of your favorite at-home activities to come up with your own Valentine's Day games for kids. Jenga, Bingo even Hedbanz can be thematic — with the addition of some construction paper hearts and V-Day candies. Many of these can be tailored to the ages of your kids — you can make them harder for your older ones and easier for the toddlers — and a few can either be done solo or as a group (though the class parties are probably canceled this year due to concerns about COVID-19). Even if your February 14 gathering is small, you'll all have loads of fun with these games!

Don't forget to check out Good Housekeeping's Valentine's Day Guide.

Some washi tape, paint and a few heart decorations come together to create and easy tic tac toe board that you can actually re-use. The paint gives it an artistic touch.

Get the tutorial at Just Destiny »

Just download and print this grid and the heart cards, and challenge your kids to find the matching-colored hearts. You might want to keep this one out after February 14!

Get the tutorial at Artsy Craftsy Mom »

If you're not familiar with Hedbanz, it's a silly game where players wear cards on their heads and ask other players, 20 Questions-style, until they can guess what the card says. The Crafting Chicks have come up with Valentine's Day specific cards to download, all about the holiday and the colors red and pink.

Get the tutorial at The Crafting Chicks »

This game offers a little something extra to do with your candy before you all gobble it down. Print this card, roll the die (or dice), cover up the number you get with a conversation heart or Hershey Kiss and whoever covers their whole board first wins!

Get the tutorial at Happiness Is Homemade »

The Many Little Joys has come up with five games you can do with preschoolers just with numbered construction-paper hearts, including musical hearts (instead of musical chairs), heart hopscotch and heart stomp, a game where you call out a number and kids race to see who can stomp it first.

Get the Tutorial at The Many Little Joys »

This classic carnival game takes on a new spin with heart-shaped rings (made with pipe cleaners) and painted bottles. Kids will love the festive decorations and the fun challenge!

Get the tutorial at Handmade Charlotte »

Your little ones will love this basic-yet-fun activity that involves tossing DIY heart arrows onto paper plates for points — plus, they'll have lots of fun decorating these adorable "cupid's arrows," too.

Get the tutorial at Playground Parkbench »

You can recreate your kid's favorite arcade game at home (with a special Valentine's Day twist) — just build the main structure using a foam core, then have your kids help you decorate with lots of hearts before trying to score points with ping pong balls.

Get the tutorial at Handmade Charlotte »

There are two levels of difficulty for this printable game. Younger kids can match their candy to the color of their hearts and see if they can get a Bingo. For older kids, there's a harder Bingo card where they have to match the messages on the hearts.

Get the tutorial at Playground Parkbench »

Place stickers on the bottom of a Hershey's Kiss (or similar candy), mix them up, arrange them in a grid and see if you can find a pair. Whoever makes the match gets to keep the chocolate!

Get the tutorial at Creations by Kara »

DIY a box with a heart-shaped target, along with some (not-so-pointy) arrows with felt-heart tips. Let the kids take turns seeing if they can throw the arrows into the target. Whoever gets the most in, wins!

Get the tutorial at A Girl and a Glue Gun »

These are timed challenges that test kids' candy skills. An easy one is to see how many candy hearts they can stack up in 60 seconds. If you want to make it more challenging, give the kids chopsticks and ask them to pick up hearts one at a time and drop them in a mason jar. Speed counts!

Get the tutorial at Teach Mama »

Fill paper cups with dollar-store treats, cover them with tissue paper, attach them to poster board in a heart shape then let kids take turns "breaking" the heart to claim their prizes. Little ones will have so much fun bursting through the tissue paper — it's like a personal piñata for every child.

Get the tutorial at Balancing Home »

Word puzzles are always fun, and easy to do either alone (competitively) or as a family (cooperatively). You can create your own, or download this one from Moritz Fine Designs.

Get the tutorial at Moritz Fine Designs »

Live Laugh Rowe's printable "I Spy" game asks kids to find the number of strawberries, donuts, rainbows, etc. on the page. Bonus: It comes with an answer sheet (for your eyes only).

Get the tutorial at Live Laugh Rowe »

Take the classic "Jenga" or tumble tower game to the next level by writing different love-themed instructions on the blocks, like "give one hug" — it's a sweet interactive game that'll have all parties entertained (and feeling loved).

Get the tutorial at Tried & True »

This is the Valentine's Day version of the game "Simon Says," but with a twist: Before you start, brainstorm actions that'll get their blood pumping, like jumping or running in place. Then, you'll be able to slip in a lesson about how to stay heart-healthy, too.

This could be done solo, like a puzzle, where one kid has to put the broken hearts back together. Or, if you're playing with multiple kids (in years when that's safe), cut some paper hearts in half and scramble up the pieces. Give one to each child, and tell them they have to find their match. To make it easier for toddlers, cut the hearts out of different colored paper.

With heart-shaped bean bag toys, any number of favorite games can be Valentine's Day themed. An easy one would be "heart potato," a spin on the classic hot potato.

Buy heart-shaped bean bags »

It's extremely easy to DIY a set of Valentine's Day Mad Libs. You can come up with stories about Cupid, and prompt kids for V-Day nouns (heart, arrow, candy) and adjectives (lovely, snuggable).