Sheryl Lee Ralph Requires 2 Presents From Friends and Family in December: ‘Don’t You Give Me 1 Gift’ (Exclusive)

Sheryl Lee Ralph expects her friends and family to be double fisting gifts when they see her in December. Her birthday, Dec. 30, falls in the middle of the holiday season. But that doesn’t mean the Abbott Elementary star should just get one present. 

“No, I give you two gifts. You give me two gifts,” the theater veteran tells PEOPLE at the Out100 celebration on Dec. 11. “Now, if I didn’t give you anything, well, okay, but you give me my two gifts. Thank you.”

Luckily, Ralph’s inner circle is well aware of the two-gift requirement. 

“I’ve been very fortunate,” the actress says. “I’m upfront with my friends and family. Don’t you give me one gift talking about it’s just one gift,” she mocks. 

She adds: “Celebrate me.”

This year, Ralph turns 68 but doesn’t have any big plans to mark the occasion.

“I’m going to relax. I’m going to be quiet. I’m going to enjoy myself,” she says. “I’m going to get a massage every other day. I’m going to go to the spa. I’m going to lay down.”

Ralph has had a busy year. In July, she starred alongside Bette Midler, Susan Sarandon and Megan Mullally in The Fabulous Four. That same month, she was nominated for an Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series for her role as Barbara Howard in Abbott Elementary. In October, she received GLSEN’s Champion Award. More recently, Ralph was named The Advocate’s Advocate of the Year. 

As Ralph looks to 2025, she is hoping for a kinder and safer world. 

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“I’m praying for peace on earth. I’m praying that wars and rumors of wars are squelched. I’m praying for love,” she says. “I’m praying for people to get rid or tamp down the -isms that they keep seeming to want to lean into in this era. This is not the time for all of that. I look at the decades of my life and I see, for whatever reason, how much hate I’ve seen. I’m praying for something better for everyone.”

The Emmy winner is also looking forward to a milestone wedding anniversary with her husband Vincent Hughes. On July 30, 2025, Ralph and the Pennsylvania state senator will celebrate 20 years of marriage. 

“Well, his state is Pennsylvania, his city is Philadelphia. Maybe [we’ll celebrate] in the courtyard of city hall or on the stairs of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. That would be wonderful,” Ralph previously told PEOPLE. “I don’t know, but it’ll be fabulous.”