Five Awesome Anti-Valentine’s Day Gifts

If you're like me, then you think Valentine's Day is kind of dumb. You should show your significant other how much you love and appreciate them everyday- not just once a year when you're "supposed" to. It's just a day for businesses to sell a bunch of crap and gives restaurants an excuse to raise their prices tenfold. It bugs me how obsessed people get with this day, and how depressed single people get. Whether you're involved or not, here are five anti-Valentine's Day gifts you can get your boyfriend, girlfriend or just a friend or someone else you love.

It is kind of funny seeing a line of guys waiting to buy flowers and candy on Valentine's Day night, but it's so cliche. I know they're only doing what they were "told" to do, but lets break tradition and give gifts that are fun and will last more than a week.

1. The Slayer Candy Jar

This very metal gift is sure to make the Slayer or heavy metal fan in your life smile from ear to ear as they gorge on the candy you can put inside. Tip: fill the jar with their favorite sweets- don't give it to them empty. The jar actually comes pre-filled with candies that say "hate", "kill," "destroy" or have the actual band's logo, but it might be better if it's packed with that person's preferred candy- or you could give that as a second gift so they can enjoy the morbid sweets as well as the ones they love. It's only $12.99 and is available via the official Slayer online store, which can be found here. It's a gift that keeps on giving as well, as after the candy is gone it can be used to store just about anything.

2. Dead (or black) Roses

I myself prefer dead flowers (especially roses) over live ones. They are just so fragile and beautiful, and you can keep them forever- as long as you're careful handling them. Roses especially dry up perfectly but don't fall apart, and some even keep their color. I have always wanted black roses, but they can be hard to find. I plan to cover my wedding setting in them- even if I have to some how dye them black. However, if you can find them or order them online, they're a beautiful, non-cliche gift. If dead roses are your pleasure, go buy some now while they're still cheaper and keep them out of water. Tip: hanging them upside down helps them dry better. Tie a red or black ribbon around the stem to keep them all together, or gift them already in a vase (minus the water of course).

3. An Anti-Valentine's Day Care Package

Get a bunch of little, inexpensive things and put them all together in a basket. Fill it with bloody, gorey, scary movies, snacks to munch on while watching the movies, drinks, voo-doo dolls and anti-Valentine's Day merchandise. There is a ton of this stuff out there- buttons, stickers, shirts, mugs, pillows, books, etc. My favorite is this adorable conversation heart bracelet with not-so-nice messages. You could also enclose a not-so-romantic poem or card to top it all off.

4. Music

You can never ever go wrong with gifting music. Whether their pleasure is rock, metal, pop, rap, country or all of the above, giving the gift of music is always a great idea. You don't even have to wrap it because they already come wrapped in plastic! This isn't limited to just CD's of course- anything music-related would do, but here is a rough list of all-genre albums that are being released on Valentine's Day:

• Hopes Die Last
• Zombie Inc.
• The Devastated
• Earth
• Immolith
• Amos Lee
• The Cranberries
• Nicki Minaj
• Punch Brothers

5. Nothing!

What's more anti-Valentine's Day than nothing!? This might only work though if your partner feels the same way- otherwise you might be spending the night on the couch- which some guys might actually prefer.

These are just five brief ideas. If you don't like any of these, try to come up with something on your own, or branch an idea off of one of these. Go out to eat at a fast food restaurant, make a CD full of anti-love and romance songs, draw or color a non-lovey dovey picture, or take advice from the following heavy metal musicians from the video below:

What are you getting your valentine? Do you have an anti-Valentine's Day gift idea?