I wonder if those who never had the restrictions of no holidays really enjoy the holidays and their birthdays or if they just simply go along with it because of peer pressure.
Sometimes yes, and sometimes, no. It really depends on the person and their experiences. Certainly Christmas can be a time that people would rather have a different experience than they do. I have never liked being "forced" to give people presents. We did have some of that feeling this year, and I didn''t care for it. It all came from people who shouldn't be bringing us things but did, such as my relatives, who I hardly ever see just showing up at the doorstep with gifts. Then we felt guilty because we hadn't planned on getting things for them. I didn't like that. But read on...
I wasn't born into the borg, but came into it as an adult and was in/around it for about 14 years, so maybe my perspective is of use to you. Wife and I were baptized in '94 and had done the whole "study 2 books and be un-bapt. pubs" thing. Both wife and I had always enjoyed the holidays, mostly for the usual reasons. I have a rather personal and lengthy post on my reasons for enjoying Christmas as a kid which you would be able to find pretty easily through my post history. It was on a thread about holidays back in December. I won't go into that now though; it's a painful topic for me in certain aspects, rather long to explain, and for now it is enough to say that I always looked forward to Christmas. Wife's experience was more normal (and positive), and she liked the holidays for the standard reasons.
We DA'd together in September. This Chritsmas was exciting for both of us and emotional for me in particular. We were both glad to simply have our lives back again and to make our own choices. Because of ideological uncertanties relating to religion (we have both gone through a religious backlash of differning degrees), we kept religion out of the holiday. In other words, Jesus was not the reason for the season for us. As a dub, I was convinced that such a thing isn't possible, but it is. It really is possible to just have a tree, non-religious decorations, and to just simply enjoy the prettyness of it all. It was very rewarding to be able to spend time with our families (everybody else related to us has never been a dub).
I mentioned it being emotional for me, and it was. It is difficult to even type this without tearing up. Although my wife and I had celebrated the holidays before the borg, we had never done so as a married couple. Our son, now 9, had of course never experienced any holidays or birthdays. Being together as a family on Christmas morning was just so exciting, and I was looking forward to it. I knew my son was eager to open the presents, but I wasn't prepared for how it would effect me. One of the first things that was opened was a gift from my young son to me. He had picked it himself, purchased it with his own limited money, and it was a very thoughtful and useful gift. He thought Dada might like this cool scew driver with interchangeable bits that store in the handle because I am always needing one to keep in the house and seem to have to go out to the garage a lot to get one.
I don't care how unmanly it may sound, but after opening his gift, it all hit me, and I sat there in my chair just clutching this screw driver to my chest with tears streaming down my face. Here was an example of true, pure, thoughtful generosity, and even though the gift was small, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Anyway...
I don't know how we will feel about the holidays as the years go by, but our first Christmas together was very nice and I don't see why that would change.