Driving for UPS makes every day feel like Christmas. This is why.

Happy November! I see the day after Halloween as the first day of the holiday season. Time to start enjoying Christmas music again!

Recently I gave five simple reasons why I love being a UPS driver. Since then I’ve thought of a few others, including this one:

I make people happy, all day, every day.

My job makes me feel like Santa Claus all year long. I like to tell people that while Santa wears red on Christmas, the other 364 days he wears brown.

Think about it. All I do is deliver good things to the people on my route, without asking for or expecting anything in return. If that doesn’t sound like Santa Claus, I don’t know what does!

Being that ‘last-mile’ person, uniting a customer with whatever they ordered is enough to bring a smile to my face each time.

In fact, I enjoy delivering so much that I started bringing in homemade treats and other gifts for my coworkers. Why limit myself to just customers?

And just as it’s tradition for some families to leave out a snack – maybe even a handwritten note – for Santa on Christmas Eve, there are homes where I’m met with complimentary refreshments for delivery drivers.

My heart is always warmed by the food and drinks I’m offered on route. But imagine my absolute delight when I find this upon delivering several heavy boxes:

And how could I resist a homemade treat that’s accompanied by this note?

Dear reader, my heart just melted! Never before had I received such a precious gift from a customer – and so far, never since! This simple act of generosity made my whole day!

I knew I had to give this little girl some positive feedback. I wanted her to know just how much her gifts had affected me. So I wrote her a thank you note on (what else?) brown stationery. I delivered my note along with a present I’d found online: a UPS package car and driver she could build with interlocking toy bricks.

Meanwhile, it probably doesn’t surprise you that the cookies were crazy delicious. Best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had! I’m convinced it was the cinnamon – it gave the cookies a special zing.

I checked out the blog because I wanted that recipe! I wanted my family and coworkers to enjoy the cookies as much as I had. I came across a lot of recipes there, but not the one for the upgraded chocolate chip cookies.

Undeterred, I reached out via email to the baker-blogger, Lauren. I’d hoped she’d be willing to share the recipe with me, and very graciously she did!

Eventually Lauren did publish the recipe along with a whole post about her family’s experience with giving the cookies – not just to me but to all the ‘last-mile’ people serving their family. I was thrilled to read about how their initial gift set off a chain reaction of generosity.

Where does generosity come from? What does it do for us? At least since Richard Titmuss published his pathbreaking book The Gift Relationship in 1970, social scientists have been studying gift exchanges and their causes and consequences.

It turns out that the personal, interpersonal, and communal effects of giving or receiving a gift are powerful, immediate, and long-lasting. The research has overwhelmingly shown that exchanging gifts enhances individual wellbeing among both givers and receivers, and strengthens the social bonds between them.

In short, nothing makes people happy, or brings people together, quite like an act of generosity.

Here’s an amazing story I came across years ago. Every time I read it, it still moves me to tears. One act of generosity connected complete strangers and changed their lives forever.

While my own story of the gift exchange with Lauren’s family didn’t have quite as high of an impact, I’m still grateful for the experience and am eager to keep on ‘paying it forward.’ That’s what generosity does, does it not?

SIDE NOTE: When I first read that list of ingredients on the cookie bag, I had a sneaking suspicion that Lauren was dealing with a food insensitivity issue in her family. The blog confirmed that I was right. Rosie’s baby sister Ellie is on quite the journey with FPIES – Food Protein-Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome – and the whole family is along for the ride.

Thus I’m not at all surprised by the generosity of Lauren and her family. Included in the job description of every parent – but moms especially – is tremendous sacrifice. All the more so when a family member faces an exceptionally difficult situation. I’m inspired by how they’ve chosen to respond to this difficult situation, and I’m happy to help them share their story with others.