UPDATE - 4:21 p.m.: Tim Hortons representative Brynn Burton said in a phone interview today that the coffee-doughnut chain is organizing official pre-Christmas pay-it-forward days. From Dec. 18 to 22, Tim Hortons customers are encouraged to pick up the tab for a fellow customer.

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Documented cases of the “pour it forward” movement are popping up at Tim Hortons restaurants across Canada and the U.S., often times in the spirit of the holiday season.

The whole concept is a simple one: When in line at a Tim Hortons drive-thru—or any drive-thru, for that matter—pay for your order and the order placed by the person in the car behind you.

In some cities and towns, beneficiaries of the act of good will are continuing the kindness, paying for the next person in line, creating a chain reaction of generosity.

“One day it went to 16 cars before the last person,” said Kathy Ferguson, owner/operator of three Ohio Tim Hortons stores said in a Marietta Times interview. “They don’t ask for the total on the person’s bill.”

The generous gesture of picking up the tab for the next in line at Tim Hortons isn’t a new concept. In Canada, it’s been going on for years—and not just around the holiday season.

“It’s all year round. We can’t even tie it to a particular promotion,” said Brynn Burton, public relations manager for Tim Hortons U.S., who is unaware of the trend’s start date. “It’s a really cool mysterious to us.”

There are documented cases of this particular variety of kind act in Winnipeg, New Brunswick, Calgary, Detroit and right here in Buffalo.

The random act of kindness eventually became something bigger, inspiring Tim Hortons restaurants to embrace the trend and launch an official Random Act of Kindness Week in 2011.

And, in the spirit of the holiday season, Tim Hortons is again encouraging customers to pick up the tab for fellow Tims-goers from Dec. 18 to 22.

Tim Hortons is encouraging their customers to pay it forward

Photo courtesy of Flickr / lifecreations.