As part of living life more excitingly with little adventures, I decided to celebrate this year’s (and subsequent) Christmas by doing something unique!. I never really celebrated Christmas other than being sucked into the galore of shopping and food promotions. Yes, I used to look forward to December because of the endless promotions. It is the day and age where the promotion of consumerism is the norm. Unsurprisingly, I was always tricked into it. As I move away from consumerism and more into minimalism this year, I realised that we have a lot more than we need. We have crossed the ‘enough’ threshold and moved into ‘extravagance cluttering’. This has led to overconsumption and not feeling fulfilled even after spending. It has led to a life full of clutter, worry, guilt and never being satisfied. Life is more than just consuming, it is about knowing our enough and ultimately learning to start giving.
The exciting plan that kept me up all night
An idea came to me at a very strange time, in the wee hours in the morning in November at 1am when I couldn’t fall asleep, something sparked in my brain — this idea was borned. It may sound like some grand plan but it’s not. It’s something so simple yet it has never crossed my mind for years.
The plan was to do a little gift giving to strangers while I rollerblade across orchard road. The novelty of this idea really kept me up all night feeling excited with adrenaline and dopamine. Anyhow, I wasn’t really sure who exactly I should give. I was decluttering my house and found a bunch of brand new soft toys, do I give them to children? Furthermore, I found some brand new thermoflasks and water bottles, do I give them to the elderly? After much thought, I decided to give them our daily unsung heroes — cleaners.
Why the cleaners?
Too many people are our unsung heroes. Cleaners, bus drivers, construction workers, postman, mrt control officers… Even teachers too! It depends on how you might want to see them. But they play a role in helping you travel to work/school safely and smoothly, have a clean and conducive environment and receive your Shopee parcel on time.
This year’s gift giving, I decided to give them to the cleaners. They are one of the people who are the least appreciated. They slog in the sun sweeping the leaves and picking up litter, clean clogged toilet bowls, scrub the floors and walls, clean off people’s spits, top up all the consumables people use wastefully and unappreciatively. Yet, people still complain about a job that is not well done. Imagine stepping on a person’s spit or using the toilet with a dirty seat. These people ensure these situations seldom happen when you are out. One of my loved ones is a cleaner and the stories she shared about how people can complain about the littlest things such as not cleaning fast enough or leaving out a spot of dirt.
They are truly our unsung heroes — deeply unappreciated. Some may even look down upon them. I hope that this gift giving would brighten up their day, letting them know that some people out there do appreciate their efforts.
Refining my purpose
I didn’t really have a strong purpose in doing this until one of the best people I know from the Son-Rise Program (will share more next time!), Angie, showed me her support for my idea. She helped me refine my purpose. Initially, it was “I’m going to give cleaners who are working nearing Christmas day in a very Christmas-sy place in Orchard.” Now it is “I’m going to influence others to do the same because it is an awesome idea!” Angie shared with me how many people actually want to give but are not sure how and who to give. She helped me share with others which led to a very sweet volunteer we know, Cherlyn, to enthusiastically contribute to the idea. Cherlyn made 10 food gift bags to add to my collection of thermoflasks and bottles.
Angie even gave me the idea to write little cards to stick onto the gifts thanking them for their efforts. This greatly helped me see the purpose of me doing this gift giving — celebrating the unsung heroes’ efforts and letting them know they are appreciated.
Leading up to the day
I already had the thermoflasks and bottles with me at home so I didn’t really need to find out what exactly I wanted to give. So the next step was to wrap the presents. However, I had no idea how to wrap presents. It’s shockingly surprising right! I knew Angie and her son, Caden, who had artistic talents and knew how to wrap presents nicely, so I reached out to them. Caden has autism spectrum disorder but is such a lovely and talented boy. Of course, I could have just learned online but I thought why not let a boy I know who loves wrapping presents teach me!
I brought the gifts to them and Caden almost immediately started measuring, cutting and folding wrapping papers, ribbons and tape. One gift after another, he helped me wrap and I learnt his techniques. It was really calming wrapping the presents with Caden who found it equally therapeutic for his sensory needs.
Writing and decorating the little cards were therapeutic as well. I would be one of the least artistic people anyone would know so decorating cards is never really something I would do. However, Angie helped me brighten up the cards by adding colours. I learnt where to add colours or lines to fill up the dull spaces. I guess through this, I also learnt how to make something more aesthetically pleasing because I’m really that aesthetically unpleasing!
I shared this idea with a couple of my workmates and they were so willing to contribute and join me on their skates to give out the gifts. This made it all the more exciting and fun!
The days have come!
I decided to do it on 19th, 24th and 25th December! I didn’t really intend on doing it for so many days but preparing and executing it was so exciting! Each gift that was given and the smiles on the cleaners’ faces upon receiving the gifts made it all the more worthwhile in giving more.
Sharing this idea with my family also helped. My mother and sister found more things at home which they bought but never used such as keychains, pouches and coasters. They helped me extend the gift giving to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I believe that having the gift giving on Christmas day would make it more memorable for the cleaners as they are working on a day when most people are celebrating or enjoying their day off.
Day 1
The first day of the gift giving felt super exciting as the long awaited day has finally come. My friend and I started out skating outside the malls along Orchard Road. Within 2 minutes of skating, we spotted a cleaner clearing the bins outside and managed to pass him a goodie! The next cleaner we found was not so long later. After skating for about 1 hour, we only managed to give out 3 gifts. We then spotted some less fortunate people trying to make a living by the streets selling tissue or basking, we decided to pass them some of the gifts as well. Another 1 hour passed and we only managed to give out 7 out of the 16 gifts. Nevertheless, it was delightful having to skate with all the beautiful Christmas lighting surrounding us. We decided to just go into the malls as we couldn’t find anyone else to give outside the malls. We had fun going to the different levels of the mall, leaving gift bags in the cleaner’s rest/storage rooms and having a little chat with some of them. Each of their smiles upon receiving the gifts really made our efforts all the more worth it!
A memorable statement one of the cleaners said (in Chinese) was, “I’m so thankful for the gift! So glad someone actually thinks worthy of me.”
Day 2
On Christmas Eve, I decided to just skate around my neighbourhood to distribute the goodies to the cleaners. After 30 minutes of skating, I still haven’t managed to find any cleaners to give the goodies. However, I found a worker who was doing some lift inspection work and gave the goodie to him. He was so thankful and his surprised expression was really unforgettable. That was about it, I carried 24 gifts but only managed to give out 1. Nonetheless, I treated this little skate adventure as a chance for me to venture around my neighbourhood, visiting many adorable neighbourhood cats. I found a quiet multi storey car park I never knew existed and skated there for a good therapeutic 2 hours. It’s going to be my new go-to skate place!
Day 3
Christmas day finally came! After the ‘failed’ gift giving attempt the day before, I decided to go to nearby malls at Paya Lebar to distribute the rest of the goodies. I’m so glad my parents tagged along and helped me point out who I could give the goodies to. “The aunty over there is cleaning the table, she looks tired, you can give it to her!” Every single one of them were so surprised and grateful, their expressions were so priceless too! It’s great to go into malls with a different purpose, a meaningful one, with no intention to shop or window shop but to give and make a person’s day slightly brighter. I ended the gift giving with handing a couple of gifts to the MRT control officers and thanking them for their hard work. Likewise, they couldn’t contain their bright smiles and immediately read the card I wrote for them.
Reflections
All in all, it was a super unique experience having to go to Orchard and different malls for a totally different intention. Truly, giving is receiving. I received peacefulness, fulfilment and excitement doing this. There is this saying that there is no such thing as true altruism. It’s certainly true but I’m not going to let that stop me from giving to others. I may not have true altruistic intentions in giving but as long as it brightens up the receiver’s day just a little and there is good intentions, I’ll keep doing this for the many Decembers to come. I’ll continue to get my friends and family involved to make it extra special and memorable for the unsung heroes, my friends, family and myself.
Here’s a little video I’ve put together just for memory sake
Other ways you can celebrate Christmas differently
- Volunteer for the less fortunate
- Cook dinner for your family or bake something unique!
- Have a Christmas Advent, do something special or joyful every day for about 1 month leading to Christmas
- Make sustainable handmade gifts (click here for some tutorials!)