Spreading Cheer, My Way

Every year for the past 5 years, I’ve been gifting one random person every year on my birthday, which falls on the eve of Christmas Eve. I do it as a way of showing how thankful I am for another birthday spent with my family and friends, the people that I love.

It started when I was in grade 12. There was this girl in my language class. We had that one class, 4 times a week, for 2 years and I didn’t even know her name. Then, sometime in December 2005, we got put on an assignment together. And I realized what a wonderful person she was and how I’d missed out on a great friend the past 1 1/2 years.

She lived with a roommate close to college. Her parents were divorced. And every year, her parents would fight over who got her over Christmas break. To avoid all of that, she decided to just stay back and not visit either of her parents.

When I heard her story, I was heartbroken. Her roommate was gone for the holidays. She was all alone during the holidays. Can you imagine not having your loved ones around during Christmas? Or for us Indians, during the 357852 festivals we have every year. Diwali just went by. All of those who live away from their families must know how lonely it feels to not have your family around during festivals.

Anyways, I obviously got her to stay at my place during the break. My parents wedding anniversary  is on 21st, my birthday on 23rd and Christmas on 25th. So it’s a lot of celebration for us. I accidentally got a sneak peek of her college ID and found out her birthday was the day after Christmas. She didn’t even tell me. I felt even worse that her parents weren’t with her on her birthday. So, I threw her a birthday party. It was also half my party. I can’t really afford two parties. I love birthday gifts (who doesn’t?).  But seeing her happy that day made me more happy than all the gifts in the world. And that was the first time I did something so big for someone I barely knew for about 2 weeks. Every year since, I gift someone who really needs the cheer, on my birthday.

This year I’m gifting my best friend’s girlfriend. I don’t know her that well. We must have met barely 4-5 times. But she’s a really sweet girl and I honestly adore her. But she’s going through some really tough times with her family, and I want to be able to cheer her up.

I don’t do it as charity. All the people that I’ve gifted have been people I know. I do it as a friendly gesture. And it’s my way of being thankful. And since Christmas comes right after my birthday, it’s a good excuse for gifting.

This year, I also have a blog. I’m so thankful to all the people that follow my blog. I can’t thank you enough for reading my mindless ramblings. I wish I could send a gift to each one of my followers. But I’m pretty sure I can’t do that without my bank balance going into negative. So, I’m going to go the classic blog way, and hold a giveaway (I honestly didn’t mean for that to rhyme. creepy. lol).

I won’t tell you the contents of the giveaway because I honestly want to surprise the person who gets it. But since this is mostly a beauty blog, the gifts will be beauty-related. I really hope all of you will participate.

I’ll put up the form in about a week or so. I’m currently super-duper busy and haven’t had time to go shopping. I will, hopefully this weekend. And then I’ll put up the official giveaway post.

I’m looking forward to all of you participating.