Best gift for your Valentine? A Kiss! Women prefer gestures to expensive gifts

Women don’t want sexy underwear for Valentine’s Day, research shows.

In fact, most would rather have a kiss goodbye on the way to work than lingerie on February 14, a study of 5,000 adults found. 

And if men are intent on planning a grand romantic gesture, they would be much better off buying roses.

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Skimpy knickers: But most women don't want sexy underwear for Valentine's Day

Only 34 per cent of women said they wanted underwear as a gift, while twice as many, 65 per cent, liked flowers. Even so, almost one in five women had never been given flowers by their partner.

But it might be best to skip the presents altogether, since both men and women said that a morning kiss was their most important routine, according to the research by AXA on little things that mean a lot to people.

Next on women’s list was a spontaneous declaration of love, while men valued going out for dinner.

The survey also revealed that almost as many as one in five women have never been bought flowers by their partner.

The research, commissioned by AXA as part of their 'Little Things Mean A Lot' campaign, found one in ten blokes only buy gifts on Valentines because it's expected of them. 

Psychologist Donna Dawson said: 'The statistics reveal that many of the little things that mean a lot to both men and women in a relationship are free.

 

'This means that we have no excuse for not hitting the mark this Valentine's Day, as it isn't expensive gifts that impress the most, but affectionate and caring gestures. 

'Women's natures are constructed so as to make relationships and communication their top priorities, so hearing and receiving messages of affection will definitely strike a chord with them.

'Men, on the other hand, prefer actions to words, and eating a meal (especially one made for him) reminds him of being cared for and loved.

'Although there are differences between the sexes, what they share in common is even greater - the need to experience little, reassuring gestures of affection, given freely and thoughtfully, every day of their lives.'

The research also found men are best advised to stick to roses over lingerie when it comes to Valentine's gifts - while forty-three per cent of men think buying lingerie for a partner is important, only 34 per cent of women share the sentiment. 

Nearly double the amount of women would rate a bunch of flowers more highly (65 per cent), even though 17 per cent confess they have never been bought flowers by their partner.

Men may also want to ditch the traditional Valentine's card this year, as it appears a simple text will do. 

Women value flirtatious texts more than men (63 per cent vs 58 per cent) and a playful text message (10th place) rates higher on the female checklist than a written love note (13th place).

Conversely, the results have proven the theory that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach - over four in five men (84 per cent) value going out for dinner highly (2nd place) and nearly three quarters (73 per cent) place having a meal cooked for them as a little thing that means a lot. 

Being made breakfast in bed narrowly missed out on featuring in the male shortlist (12th place) with almost half of the men questioned appreciating it.

Yesterday, Chris Jones, AXA Head of Brand, said: 'It is great to see that we are valuing the little things in life when it comes to letting our loved ones know that we care.

'At AXA, we know that when big things happen, it's the little things that mean a lot, and we pride ourselves on being there for our customers every step of the way.'

 

Top ten things that matter in a relationship

MEN

• Goodbye kiss in the morning
• Going out for dinner
• Unprompted declaration of love
• Date night
• Romantic weekend away
• Romantic walk
• Having your favourite meal cooked
  for you
• Being bought a gift for no reason
• Flirtatious text or phone messages
• Being bought flowers

WOMEN

• Goodbye kiss in the morning
• Unprompted declaration of love
• Date night
• Going out for dinner
• Romantic walk
• Being bought a gift for no reason
• Romantic weekend away
• Having your favourite meal cooked
  for you
• Being bought flowers
• Flirtatious text or phone messages

 Source
 
Dailymail