Anyone else have "Family Day"?

tall penguin

Many of the jw's I grew up with had "Family Day", a kind of pseudo-Christmas, where each family member would draw another's name and buy a gift for that person. They'd then have a special day where they'd exchange gifts and have a meal together.
My family started doing this when I was in my mid 20's. We did it for a few years and then I got mad one year and basically said, "Either we're celebrating Christmas or we're not. No more of this having it both ways crap." That put an end to that. I just didn't feel right saying that Christmas was unchristian but doing the same thing on another day of the year was acceptable. It just seemed so hypocritical.
That reminds me of something else. My mother got upset with me one year for not remembering her birthday. Bear in mind that she's the one who converted to jw when I was 5 and subsequently forced birthdays out of our life. My Dad called me up and told me my mom was in tears because I'd forgotten to call and wish her a "Happy Unbirthday". I was steamed. Again, you can't have it both ways. Hypocrites! (My apologies, I'm feeling a bit angry today.)
tall penguin

unclebruce

Hey Happy Unmemorial Tall Penguin I thought this thread would be about the enforced 'group' socialisation introduced in the mid 1980's.. anti-social passive resistant bruce

rocketman

We didn't have a Family Day. But there was a group of jws, included several elders, who got together and exchanged gifts right around Dec 25. The gifting was based on names drawn from a hat at a previous gathering.

Basically, it was celebrating Christmas without the decorations.

tall penguin

Thanks Uncle Bruce! I needed that laugh.
tall penguin

limbogirl

I knew a family that celebrated the parents wedding anniversary like Christmas. On the anniversary they would all exchange gifts -- i think they also called it family day. I don't see how this is different from celebrating a birthday. Isn't a birthday simply the anniversary of one's birth?

MuadDib

My family did indeed have Family Day - a pretty extensive one where everybody bought a gift for everyone else. We used to have two or three a year, I guess to make up for birthdays as well. I remember it was a lot of fun, though my siblings and I rarely had enough money to get each other anything really great. Funny how JWs develop compensatory social mechanisms to replace all the traditional ones their religion forces them not to observe.

anewme

Yes I recall when all the children were small my relatives had fun get togethers at the grandmas house.
Grandma was not a witness, but all her 7 children and 15 grandkids were.

To appease her they would all gather at her house and shower each other with gifts and love and fun.

It was fun! And we did it several times a year in between holidays.

Bumble Bee

We never had "Family Day", but I knew of others that did on their parents anniversary. Word got out and they were told to stop - it was too much like Christmas. (FYI - the fathers of these two families were elders - it didn't look good for the R&F).

We tried that one year, around Christmas time, and my mom and sis participated, but said afterwards they woildn't do it anymore - it made them feel too uncomfortable.

BB

damselfly

We did that on my parent's anniversary every year. We also had friends that just picked a random day of the year and had "Family Day" with all the gifts etc. It was frowned upon by some in the hall but one of the elder's (with a huge amount of kids) did the same thing so they frowned quietly.

Dams

delilah

We never had "Family Day", then again, my dad was really glad that he no longer had to fork out money to buy gifts for any holidays...But I knew plenty of families in my old congregation who had such "family days", some even held them on Christmas day....go figure.

I also know many who feel that they deserve a happy birthday wish too, even though they don't celebrate...why not just celebrate for heaven's sake? Sheesh already!!!

Anyone else have "Family Day"?

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