Christmas is the time to exchange gifts with your loved ones. While some are exceptional at giving the perfect gifts; let's face it, some are not. There are times when we can be left a tad with what we've received for Christmas. Sometimes, it can even leave you wondering if some people are interested in exchanging meaningful gifts during the holiday season. As countless get-togethers and Christmas parties can overwhelm anyone with a bunch of pointless gifts, one family has decided to do their Secret Santa tradition a bit differently this time and it's resonating with many people.
A Canadian illustrator named Denise who goes by @theprettypinkstudio on TikTok shared how her family celebrates the holiday season by exchanging gifts but with a special twist. “A few years ago, my family and I decided to turn our Kris Kringle white elephant tradition into something more meaningful and exciting during the holidays,” she begins in a voiceover on her now-viral video. We see an adult family member unwrapping a Hot Wheels set they got as a gift and it might have puzzled a lot of people had Denise not explained it.
Image Source: TikTok | @theprettypinkstudio
“Instead of gifting each other a gift that we probably don't need and will likely get rid of in a couple of years, we decided to gift each other a toy that we would have loved as a child. Following the same rules as Kris Kringle, you do draw a name and that is the person that you buy a toy for. My mother-in-law had my dad, who was a huge soccer fan, so she gifted him a mini foosball. As you can tell, he was excited and likely wanted to keep it,” Denise revealed.
The video shows other family members opening their respective gifts as well which are some delightful presents to them such as mini motorbikes. “All the gifted toys are then collected and dropped off at a local toy drive. This new family tradition has changed our get-together during the holidays and has made it extra special,” Denise added. This innovative take on the Secret Santa gift exchange tradition won over the folks on TikTok and it just might have pushed a lot of people to brainstorm before gifting their family and friends something unique this time.
Image Source: TikTok | @theprettypinkstudio
@shaughnessyxoxo wrote: "My work does this and it is so much better than receiving another generic candle or mug Secret Santa gift and a great way to give back to the community, highly recommend it." @theethantyler questioned: "Wait so you give things to each other not to keep? Or are there gift cards with it? Just wondering how it fully works." Denise replied to this comment and wrote: "I guess you can make your own rules. The element of surprise and memories is the part we keep. We donate the toys."
Image Source: TikTok | @rae1977.0
Image Source: TikTok | @kryptongurl84
@mcleanthe8th joked: "My family does Christmas lists. Even for adults. I'm 48 and mine consisted of only Lego sets." @georges_wild_world quipped: "I love this. Even if the adult was given the option to keep it for a while to fulfill that childhood wish, it likely could be donated in good." Denise replied by writing that "the real point of this kind of gift Secret Santa is to donate the toys to children who don't receive toys on Christmas Day." "We are making a child smile on December 25th. To each their own," she concluded.
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Pictured: A healthy practice?
Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.