Come Feb. 14, we all know the drill.

Purchase one box of dark or milk chocolates, preferably heart shaped. Purchase wrapped roses, preferably a quantity of one dozen in some reddish hue. Purchase one stuffed animal, preferably of the teddy variety. Purchase one greeting card, preferably romantic and sappy in nature.

Gather purchases and present to your loved one, followed with a quiet dinner at an upscale restaurant — wine or champagne optional. Rinse and repeat once a year.

While there’s nothing necessarily wrong with the rote traditions of Valentine’s Day, for me, personally, it gets a little bit boring and in the end it feels somewhat disingenuous to just follow the preordained customs when it’s a holiday meant to celebrate something so individual and as deeply personal as love.

That’s why I choose to celebrate the day a little differently and instead of putting together the cookie cutter romantic expressions you can buy from any chain store for my loved one and following through with the ceremonial dinner traditions, I would rather come up with a fun night out doing something we both enjoy as a way to remind each other why we’re together in the first place.

Because love cannot be defined — metaphorically speaking — I say celebrate the thing by doing something a little outside the box and, hey, it’s a good way to avoid the crowds at the fancy restaurants and typical Valentine’s Day hangouts.

For example, last year my lady and I went to a rather entertaining Valentine’s Day Roller Derby match at Municipal Auditorium, followed by cheeseburgers and beer at the Westport Flea Market and drinks at home.

Romantic? Not in a conventional way, but the point of the holiday is the celebration of love and we both love unconventional and violent sports, delicious grilled meat and beer, so it’s romantic in its own unique sort of way.

This year, we’re taking in a Missouri Mavericks hockey game at the Independence Events Center, hopefully followed by pizza and drinks somewhere with a nightcap of a Netflix movie as of yet to be determined.

It’s not a carriage ride through the Plaza or a steak dinner at The Capital Grille, but I know we’re both going to have fun and we get to justify a pricey night out in the name of love and, of course, economic stimulation for the good of the country.

Of course, I’m still under strict orders to purchase a box of Whitman’s chocolates for her, but we skip over the stuffed animals and flowers and so on and just use the night as a sort of super date where we both get to do something we might not otherwise get around to doing without worrying about the holiday rigmarole.

Plus, we don’t have to dress up or stress about being late to a reservation or finding the right gift.

I’m not saying our oddball tradition is right for everyone, but it’s nice to shirk the formality of tradition every now and then and just do something fun and out of the ordinary, especially on Valentine’s Day.

So, shake it up a little bit this weekend and do something different.

And for you single people: You can always catch up on “Lost.”