Is this your first post JW Christmas? Tell us about it!

by LovesDubs 3 Replies latest jw friends

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  LovesDubs

  I was still in the borg when my children came...the oldest was going on 9 and the other two 6-1/2 and 2 when I decided it was time for mom to jump ship and run so my children,,,and ME could live normal lives. My neighbors whom I had dutifully avoided as bad association for all those years, heard that I had left the JWs and that my children were having their first Christmas ever in December of 1997. They got together and brought to us a little well worn and loved artificial tree, boxes of extra ornaments from their own collections, some ceramic village pieces with lights inside (which has grown to a really big village now with people...something my kids delight in setting up each year), and presents for the kids. I tell you what...I have rarely been as moved as I was at that moment...the love these people showed for us even though I had never allowed myself to be close to them, being told they were evil, was heartwarming and pure. My husband wasnt happy but neither did he have any choice in the matter...nor has he since. My children have blossomed and propered and are in as many activities as their days can hold and all are on the honor roll and loving life! January of 1997 will be my 10 year anniversary of having left the evil grasp of the Borg and entered LIVING! Now my mother in law is out of the Borg and is trying to come down and celebrate HER first post JW Christmas with her grandkids!

  For those of you who are celebrating the holidays...no matter why you do, no matter what you do to celebrate....may peace and love come to you and your family!

  Tell us how you feel and what you will be doing this year!

  LovesDubs
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  Schism

  Silly LuvsDubs, don't you know that your neighbors were only being nice to you because Satan had control of them and was using their fake, worldly nice-ness to prove his Satanic point?

  That's how Satan sucks us in, by using nice pagans to swindle us!

  Hah, actually I'm glad you were such a good parent to get your kids out of there! I was 12 and miserable in 1997. I won't be rushing to do Christmas anytime soon (mainly because I have no money and no enthusiasm about get-togethers), but I'm glad you are happy now! I'm sure your kids know how lucky they are!
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  lost_light06

  This will be my first and my kid's first Christmas. Since I'm living with my brother (who has celebrated christmas since he was 18) I don't have much to do as way of decorations or the tree. I'm looking forward to getting my kids presents and seeing the look on their faces as they open them up. In all honesty, having been raised a JW, I don't have much connection with holidays. I don't get real festive as others do but I do enjoy the excitement others have and the general good will people seem to express during the season, something I was taught was bad as a JW.
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  Alpheta

  LoveDubs, thanks for sharing that wonderful experience with us. What great neighbors you had in 1997. It has always been my experience, though, that people in general are not the a-holes that the JWs make them out to be. That's just part of the "hype" in order to try and differentiate themselves from "the world". In actuality, as many here can attest, the "worldly" people are more generous, giving and spontaneously loving and caring than the average JW - and they don't discriminate based on whether you are "in" or not.

  This is not my first christmas since being out (I left in October, 2003), but it's the first one that I'm putting up a tree as my fiance is coming from Montreal to spend the holiday with me, our first together. We're both thrilled - carrying a long distance relationship/romance isn't the easiest thing in the world, but email and telephones are wonderful things! My last tree was 1994, and after that Christmas I packed everything up, including the practically new (at the time) artificial tree and gave it to a friend from high school, a single mom struggling to raise two kids. I know they got good use out of it.

  And, bad JW that I was, I always bought gifts for my closest friends and co-workers while I was "in", I didnt' give a rip what the Society said about not celebrating christmas; I figured if it was alright not to give back my christmas bonus (no way in hell was I going to do that anyway), it was alright to spread a little holiday cheer by giving "gifts of appreciation" to my buddies and bosses :)