“It’s not something I’d want to see,” said Sarah. “You see a lot of men wandering around looking for underwear on Valentine’s Day but that’s a gift for them and most women would look at it like that.”

You have been warned.

We’d like to hear your Valentine’s Day stories – the best or even the worst you have experienced. The winner of the most entertaining story will win a luxurious makeover at the Vanilla Salon in Aspley – hair colour, cut and conditioning, manicure, eyebrow shaping, facial and make-up worth more than £150.

We’ll feature your stories on this page.

To enter, send your story to: Hilarie Stelfox, Features, Huddersfield Examiner, Pennine Business Park, Longbow Close, Bradley Road, Huddersfield HD2 1GQ, or email hilarie.stelfox@examiner.co.uk

Don’t forget to include your full contact details.

Hairdresser and partner at the Vanilla salon in Aspley Jane Prentice, pictured below, believes that actions speak louder than cash.

“I don’t think you have to spend a lot of money to show someone you care,’’ she said. “You can just cook them a lovely meal, some real comfort food to help them relax at the end of a busy day.”

But if money is no object then Jane recommends a surprise weekend away or a day at a spa.

“I like a surprise,’’ she said. “My boyfriend always does something for Valentine’s Day. We’re both keen walkers so he’s taken me away to the Dales. It’s the thought behind it that counts.

“Doing something special shows that you are thinking about each other and taking care of each other.”

Carla Woodhead, pictured below, account manager for cosmetic company Lancome in Boots, Huddersfield, says: “Flowers and chocolates are lovely but the flowers die and the chocolates are soon gone. I like to get something that lasts a bit longer, like a fragrance.

“Because I work for a cosmetic company, which has its own fragrances, people think I have enough, but I like to try those from other cosmetic houses for a change.”

What would she recommend men buy for their partners?

“I think most women would enjoy having some really good skincare products or something from their favourite skincare routine that they perhaps wouldn’t want to splash out on themselves,” said Carla.

THE St Valentine who gives his name to the modern celebration on February 14 is thought to have been a Roman priest who angered the Emperor Claudius and was executed in AD 269.

He is said to have been persecuted for his Christian faith and when the emperor Claudius failed to convert him to Roman paganism his fate was sealed.

Other versions of the story say Valentine performed illegal marriages between Roman soldiers and their sweethearts. At the time Claudius ruled that young men made better soldiers if they remained single.

Further embellishments on the tale have Valentine curing his jailer’s daughter of blindness, falling in love with her and then writing her a note on the eve of his execution which was signed ‘From your Valentine.’

Until the Middle Ages, however, it seems there was little connection between Valentine and romance. Historians believe that the reason his name became connected with a special day for lovers is because the date of his martyrdom, February 14, falls in the middle of the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia which celebrated fertility.

The poet Geoffrey Chaucer mentions the saint in a poem of 1382 in which he wrote: “For this was St Valentine’s Day when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.”

And it was the Victorians who really embraced February 14 as a day for lovers, producing cards such as the one shown, and keepsakes for couples to send to each other.

But for all hispopularity, StValentine was removed from the Calendar of Saints by Pope Paul VI in 1969 due to lack of information about him.

But his festival is still celebrated by the church in many parts of the world.