North Pole

You’d think that Valentine’s Day at Harlequin would be like Christmas at the North Pole. After all, the Toronto-based publisher releases more than 110 romance titles a month — more than 6 billion books since the company was founded. Talk about stamina!

But actually, the staff at Love Central sounds pretty low-key. The only thing you’ll see there that’s out of the ordinary on Valentine’s Day is some extra chocolate.

Carol Aebersold and her daughter, Chanda Bell, knew they had a winning idea when they transformed their family tradition into a book, “The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition.” But when they submitted the book—about how Santa disperses helper elves to watch boys and girls during the holidays and report back to him nightly at the North Pole—to publishers, no one wanted to take a chance on the concept.