By community correspondant Keri Forbes With Valentine’s Day approaching fast, there is a mad rush to the shops to get last minute boxes of chocolate, bottles of wine, red roses and all the other usual Valentine’s Day presents.

Walking through Marks & Spencer’s the other day, it seems a whole aisle has been hit with a rush of red. Banners with ‘Valentine’s Day – 14th February’ are strung across the ceiling. And it is not just in that one shop. Valentine’s Day is everywhere. In Clintons Cards there are crinkly red heart-shaped balloons and hundreds of Valentine cards, Superdrug there are advertisements of what to get him/her for Valentine’s Day. It seems that, similar to Halloween, Valentine’s Day is beginning to grow in size to be as big a celebration as Christmas, even bigger than Father’s Day or Mother’s Day.

But what if you’re single, like me, and so what is the point of the whole day? Even some couples together don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day, but prefer to celebrate the anniversary of how long they have been dating, or of course, wedding anniversaries.

I don’t know if it is just me, but instead of Valentine’s Day being a time to celebrate love, it seems more that it just causes more sadness for the people who have maybe just broken up with their boyfriends/girlfriends, and so with the thought of Valentine’s Day comes painful memories of happier times. With this I can’t see why people celebrate Valentine’s Day. It seems to me, a massive waste of time fretting over presents, worrying about what to wear on that ‘oh so very special date,’ and a complete waste of money. This year, instead of buying someone a present, why just not tell them you love them.