• 100 story ideas
  • Checked October 2026

Valentine Story Ideas

Press the button for three Valentine's Day premises about cards, friends, family or the class party.

Valentine Story Ideas

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  1. Three cousins put on a Valentine's Day show for the grown-ups and forget every line.The audience waits. Turn: they make it up, and it is about the grown-ups.
  2. A girl gives her last sticker to finish somebody else's card.Her own is now plain. Turn: a plain card arrives for her with one sticker on it.
  3. A girl signs every card and forgets to write who they are for.Twenty-three cards say only from Ana. Turn: she lets each friend choose the one they like.

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All 100 story ideas

Cards and who they are for 20

  • A boy finds last year's valentines in a shoebox and decides to answer them, a year late. Some of those children have moved. Turn: one writes back from far away.
  • A boy makes a valentine for his dog and reads it aloud, since the dog cannot read. The dog eats it. Turn: he takes that as a yes.
  • A boy who cannot draw hearts fills his cards with what he can draw, which is trucks. He is sure everyone will laugh. Turn: the trucks are the cards people keep.
  • A boy writes the same message in every card and then worries that it is cheating. The message is you make school better. Turn: it is true of each of them in a different way.
  • A boy's card says only I do not know what to write. He nearly throws it out. Turn: his friend says it is the most honest card of the day.
  • A card maker runs out of things to say by card three. There are nineteen to go. Turn: she asks each person one question and writes down the answer.
  • A card with no name on it turns up in the class mailbox, addressed to the best listener. Four children think it is theirs. Turn: the teacher wrote it for all four.
  • A class agrees to make cards for the school next door, whose children they have never met. Nobody knows what those children like. Turn: the answers come back, with questions.
  • A class runs out of red paper, and every card has to be made in green. Green hearts look like leaves. Turn: the class invents the valentine tree.
  • A girl gives her last sticker to finish somebody else's card. Her own is now plain. Turn: a plain card arrives for her with one sticker on it.
  • A girl leaves a card on a neighbor's step each year and has never signed one. This year the neighbor waits by the door. Turn: he has kept every one on his fridge.
  • A girl makes a card for the new boy and cannot spell his name. Asking feels rude. Turn: he writes it out for her and asks how to spell hers.
  • A girl makes a card for the school janitor and cannot find him all day. She checks every hallway. Turn: he is in her classroom, fixing the heater, reading the cards on the wall.
  • A girl makes a valentine for everyone in her class and has one card left over. She does not know who it is for. Turn: the bus driver has never been given one.
  • A girl spends a week on one enormous card and forgets to make the other twenty-three. The party is in an hour. Turn: she cuts the big card into twenty-four pieces.
  • A lace paper heart is folded so many times that it will not open again. It was meant to be the fancy one. Turn: she gives it as a tiny book with a secret inside.
  • A valentine is slipped into the wrong backpack and goes home with the wrong child. It says thank you for sharing your lunch. Turn: the wrong child starts sharing his.
  • A valentine travels to school in a coat pocket through the rain and arrives as pink mush. It was for the crossing guard. Turn: she can still read the one word that matters.
  • The glue runs out on the night before Valentine's Day, with half the cards still in pieces. The shops are shut. Turn: flour and water do the job, and the cards smell of pancakes.
  • Twins make one card between them and cannot agree whose name goes first. It is for their grandfather. Turn: he reads the names out the other way round and settles it.

Friends 20

  • A boy gives his friend a card that is a joke, and the friend does not laugh. He wishes he had it back. Turn: the friend was only working out a better joke.
  • A boy is not speaking to his best friend, and Valentine's Day is tomorrow. Neither remembers who started it. Turn: each makes a card that says sorry first.
  • A boy notices that the quietest girl in class gets the fewest cards every year. He cannot fix it alone. Turn: he does not have to, once he says it out loud.
  • A boy saves his biggest cookie for a friend and guards it all morning. He is very hungry. Turn: the friend breaks it in two without being asked.
  • A boy's friend is home sick on the day of the party. He collects the friend's cards in a bag. Turn: he reads them through the window, with voices.
  • A friend who always goes first lets someone else hand out cards first, just this once. It is harder than she thought. Turn: she finds out what it is like to be surprised.
  • A friendship of four agrees on no cards this year, and all four break the agreement. Each hides a card. Turn: they hand them over at the same moment.
  • A girl counts her cards and gets one fewer than her friend. It spoils the afternoon. Turn: the last card is stuck to the bottom of the box.
  • A girl decides her best friend deserves a card as big as a door. It will not fit through the door. Turn: the friend comes outside to read it.
  • A girl promises to make cards with two different friends at the same time. She cannot be in two kitchens. Turn: she invites both to hers, and they have not met.
  • A girl who is good at everything asks a friend to teach her to cut a paper heart. Hers keep coming out as beans. Turn: bean cards are funnier, and she lets them be.
  • A girl's best friend moved away in January, and this is the first February without her. The card has no desk to go to. Turn: it goes in the mail, and one is already on its way back.
  • A new girl arrives on February 14 and is the only one without a box for cards. The class has an hour. Turn: every child gives up one decoration from their own box.
  • Friends since they were babies find the first valentine they ever traded, mostly scribble. They try to work out what it says. Turn: they make this year's the same way.
  • Three friends have always sat together, and the party tables seat two. Somebody will be left out. Turn: they carry over a third chair and share the squeeze.
  • Two best friends each plan a surprise for the other on Valentine's Day, and the plans collide. Each is hiding at the other's house. Turn: their mothers put them on the telephone.
  • Two boys who only ever talk about soccer try to write each other a nice card. Neither knows how to start. Turn: both cards are about one great pass.
  • Two friends discover that they have made each other exactly the same card. Each thinks the other copied. Turn: they both copied the same library book.
  • Two friends make friendship bracelets for each other and each runs out of the other's favorite color. Neither will admit it. Turn: half and half turns out to be the better pattern.
  • Two friends walk home with their card boxes and one box falls in a puddle. Half the cards are ruined. Turn: they dry the rest on a radiator and share the dry ones.

Family 20

  • A boy finds the valentine his parents made for him the year he was born. It says things he never knew. Turn: he writes his answer on the back.
  • A boy has two homes and two sets of cards to make. He worries about making them equal. Turn: he makes them different, and that is better.
  • A boy makes a valentine for the baby, who is too little to care. The baby chews it. Turn: he makes a second one for when the baby is seven.
  • A boy makes his grandmother a card in the language she grew up speaking. He is not sure the words are right. Turn: she corrects one and frames it anyway.
  • A boy wants to make his mother breakfast for Valentine's Day and is not allowed to use the stove. Cold breakfast it is. Turn: his sister knows how the toaster works.
  • A boy's big sister says he is too old to give their mother a handmade card. He nearly buys one. Turn: he finds his sister's own handmade card under her bed.
  • A family that has just moved knows nobody to give cards to. The street is full of strangers. Turn: one card goes in each mailbox, signed from the new house.
  • A family's dog is the only one who gets a valentine from everybody. The cat notices. Turn: the youngest makes the cat a card shaped like a box.
  • A father and son get up early to shovel the snow off the walk in the shape of a heart. It snows again before anyone wakes. Turn: they do it again, and this time someone is watching.
  • A father who says he does not care about Valentine's Day is caught making cards at midnight. He swears the child to secrecy. Turn: the child helps with the glitter.
  • A girl hides a paper heart in every one of her father's coat pockets. He does not wear that coat for a week. Turn: he finds them all at once, at work.
  • A girl mails a valentine to her cousin across the country and counts the days. It will be late. Turn: a late card gives him a second Valentine's Day.
  • A girl makes a card for her brother at college and wonders whether he will think it is silly. He does not answer for days. Turn: a photograph comes of it pinned above his desk.
  • A girl plans to bake heart cookies with her aunt, and the heart cutter is missing. There is only a star. Turn: two stars pressed together almost make a heart.
  • A girl's mother works the late shift on Valentine's Day. She will be asleep when her mother gets home. Turn: she tapes the card inside the lunch bag the night before.
  • A girl's parents are both away on February 14, and her uncle is in charge. He has never done Valentine's Day. Turn: she teaches him, card by card.
  • A grandfather has saved every valentine his family ever gave him in a cake tin. He lets one child read them. Turn: the oldest is from her own mother, aged six.
  • A stepfather and a girl who is still getting used to him are left to decorate the cake. Neither knows what the other likes. Turn: it is sprinkles, for both.
  • Brother and sister are told to make one card for Grandma, together, without arguing. That lasts four minutes. Turn: Grandma gets a card with a line down the middle and loves both halves.
  • Three cousins put on a Valentine's Day show for the grown-ups and forget every line. The audience waits. Turn: they make it up, and it is about the grown-ups.

The class party 20

  • A boy brings a snack from his grandmother's kitchen that nobody at the party has seen before. Nobody tries it. Turn: one friend does, and soon there is none left.
  • A boy counts the minutes to the party and it is moved to the end of the day. The day is very long. Turn: he spends it making one extra card, for the clock.
  • A boy is put in charge of the party music and brings the only songs he owns, which are sea shanties. Nobody knows how to dance to them. Turn: by the third song, everybody does.
  • A boy leaves his cards on the kitchen table and remembers on the bus. There is no going back. Turn: he tells each person what the card would have said.
  • A class decides to hold its party for the kindergarten down the hall. Five-year-olds are a tough crowd. Turn: the big kids find they are good at this.
  • A girl is asked to hand out the cards and finds that she cannot read some of the handwriting. Guessing could go wrong. Turn: she turns it into a game, and the class solves each one.
  • A girl is new to the country and has never seen a Valentine's Day party. She does not know the rules. Turn: she teaches the class how her old school marked a friend's day.
  • A girl stays up decorating her card box as a castle, and it is too tall for her desk. It blocks the board. Turn: it becomes the class post office for the day.
  • A snow day cancels the class party. The cards are all at school. Turn: the street holds one on sleds, with new cards made of snow.
  • The class guinea pig gets more valentines than anyone, and somebody has to read them to him. There are thirty. Turn: the shyest reader volunteers, for an audience of one.
  • The class party cupcakes are dropped in the hall five minutes before the bell. Twenty-four are now one. Turn: the class votes to call it a trifle and fetch spoons.
  • Every family signs up to bring napkins, and nobody signs up for food. There are four hundred napkins. Turn: the class learns to fold them into roses.
  • The party game is musical chairs, and the same girl is out first every year. She dreads it. Turn: this year the one who is out picks the next song.
  • The party is over, and one child is left sweeping up glitter with the teacher. He missed his bus on purpose. Turn: he wanted to say thank you with nobody listening.
  • The party piñata is a big paper heart, and it will not break. Everyone has had three turns. Turn: the smallest child finds the flap at the back.
  • The pink frosting comes out gray. No one wants a gray cupcake. Turn: the class calls them storm clouds and adds a red heart to each.
  • The principal announces that this year the class party will be held outdoors, in February. It is freezing. Turn: hot chocolate, mittens and the best party anyone can remember.
  • Room parents decorate overnight, and the class walks in to find paper hearts over the wrong room. Next door is delighted. Turn: the two rooms open the door between them.
  • The teacher is out sick on party day, and the substitute has never heard of the plan. There is a spelling test. Turn: the class spells its way to a party, one word at a time.
  • Two classes share one party, and each has its own way of doing it. One hands cards out and one hides them. Turn: they hide half and deliver half.

Mix-ups and surprises 20

  • A box of chocolates meant for the teacher is opened by a little brother on the way to school. Three are missing. Turn: the teacher's favorite kind are the ones he did not like.
  • A boy hides a card in his friend's lunch, and it soaks up the soup. The words have run. Turn: the friend says it is the first card he could taste.
  • A boy mails his grandmother's valentine and his dentist's reminder slip in each other's envelopes. The dentist gets a heart. Turn: she pins it up, and Grandma books a checkup.
  • A boy thinks Valentine's Day is on February 15 and arrives on the day with nothing. There is no time. Turn: he gives out promises on scraps and keeps every one the next day.
  • A boy writes Happy Valentimes on thirty cards before anyone tells him. He wants to start over. Turn: his class starts saying it his way.
  • A boy writes his cards in invisible ink for fun and loses the pen that reveals it. They look blank. Turn: a warm lamp works, and the class crowds round it.
  • A card with a pop-up heart springs open in a silent reading hour. Everyone jumps. Turn: silent reading becomes pop-up making.
  • A dog carries a valentine out of the house and delivers it three doors down. It was for someone else entirely. Turn: the neighbor sends the dog back with a reply.
  • A girl gets a card signed with a paw print and spends the day working out whose pet sent it. Every friend has a pet. Turn: it is the class guinea pig, with help.
  • A girl is sure that nobody remembered her, because her box is empty at noon. She tries not to mind. Turn: the cards were being saved to give all at once.
  • A girl puts her cards in the outgoing mail by mistake, without stamps. They are gone. Turn: the mail carrier walks them back to the school himself.
  • A girl signs every card and forgets to write who they are for. Twenty-three cards say only from Ana. Turn: she lets each friend choose the one they like.
  • A girl thinks the heart on her desk is from a friend, and it fell out of a library book. She thanks the wrong person. Turn: the wrong person makes her a real one.
  • A paper chain of hearts is cut with the fold on the wrong side and falls into single hearts. There is no more paper. Turn: single hearts go further, one on every desk.
  • A surprise valentine is hidden so well that its maker cannot find it either. It was for her teacher. Turn: the teacher finds it in June, inside the globe.
  • Balloons for the party escape through the classroom window, one by one. The class watches them go. Turn: one comes down in the yard of the school next door, with a card tied on.
  • Every card in the class turns out to have the same puppy on it, bought at the same store. Twenty-four puppies. Turn: they line them up into one very long dog.
  • Two children with the same first name keep getting each other's valentines. One gets too many and one too few. Turn: they pool them and read them together.
  • Two sisters' card bags are switched at the door, and each hands out the other's cards. The names are all wrong. Turn: two classes meet at recess to trade back.
  • The wind takes a whole bag of valentines across the playground. They land in trees, puddles and a goal net. Turn: whoever finds one delivers it.

How it works

These valentine story ideas are 100 premises a child can write from, each one sentence about a card, a friend, a family or a class party on February 14. Under each is what goes wrong and a possible turn.

Read the full guide

Valentine's story ideas in five groups

A list under the button holds the groups: Cards and who they are for, Friends, Family, The class party, and Mix-ups and surprises. Choose one, and every press deals from it. The whole list is written out under the tool.

From premise to story

The premise is the beginning and the turn is near the end. The middle is yours: what does the girl with one card left over try before she thinks of the bus driver? Write two tries that fail, then the turn.

  • Change the names and the pet to ones you know.
  • A mix-up is easiest to write as a chain: one thing goes wrong, then the fix goes wrong too.

Questions and answers

What can I write a Valentine's Day story about?

A card and the person it is for. On this list a girl makes a valentine for everyone in her class and has one card left over, and a boy who cannot draw hearts fills his cards with trucks.

Are these love stories?

No. The stories are about cards, friends, family, neighbors, pets and a class party. No premise is about a crush, a couple or a date.

When is Valentine's Day?

February 14, every year. Several premises start the night before, when the glue runs out, or on the morning itself, when the cupcakes are dropped in the hall.

Which ideas are funny?

Try the group Mix-ups and surprises: a dog delivers a valentine three doors down, a card soaks up the soup, and a boy writes Happy Valentimes on thirty cards before anyone tells him.

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