Christmas&Thanksgiving-Are you celebrating?

by Vitameatavegamin 44 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  larc

  A Christmas Story by Larc

  Early in my marriage, my wife and I went to visit an older cousin of mine. His mother and sister were JWs. He was not. In fact, he fought in WWII. During our visit he told me that he never celebrated Christmas so as not to offend his mother. This astounded me. He advised me not to make such a sacrifice, if I no longer believed the religion. That year we celebrated our first Christmas and loved it. One day two brothers came by to encourage us to come back to meetings. They could see the Christmas lights on the tree and hear the Christmas carols on my hifi. Of course, we did not answer the door.

  In the spring, the brothers sent us a registered letter. My wife asked the mailman if we had to accept it. He said that we could refuse to sign for it. (I was like a deer in head lights at that moment. I'm glad my wife had such presence of mind.) Several more months went by. I got a job that took us to another city, and they never followed up, so I never met with them and I was never disfellowshipped.

  We have lived happily ever after. At least at Christmas time.
• 

  RN

  We too have had Thanksgiving for many years, just called it something else or ate the big dinner on Friday! What a joke. For the last 3 years we've had friends over who like us, don't have any family in the area and aren't able to travel home. They have been 3 memorable dinners.

  This will be our 4th year to have a tree and all the trimmings, at my house Christmas is subtitled "Family Appreciation Day." We mostly started for my daughters sake, she had never experienced Christmas and wanted so desperately to be "normal." She loves being "normal."

  Funny enough the first year I put lights on the outside of the house, I thought to myself that I hadn't seen hide nor hair of any elders in several months, they'll probably show up in the next couple of weeks.
  They did! They got an eyeful, but told my husband that we couldn't be DF'd for celebrating X-mas!

  To my knowledge we are still not DF'd, not that I'd care, mind you!

  RN
• 

  RR

  My immediate family consist of my wife, and daughter. We do celebrate thanksgiving off and on, just a little dinner, sometimes friends invite us over and we have some nice fellowship.

  Christmas is the same, although we don't have lights, trees or any of the decorations, we do focus on Christ on that day, since most of the Christian world does.

  ____________________________
  I Still Believe ....
• 

  Mommie Dark

  My first year out, my employer gave me a poinsettia with tiny white lights in it 'to keep it alive while I'm out of town.' Then she took the kids shopping and bought oodles of gifts to put around the plant. SHe sort of eased us through the weirdness of our first Christmas since my childhood. Her joy and goodness were infectious and the next year we managed without 'help'.

  Since then I have gotten set free of any rank superstitious reasons NOT to celebrate the joy of family so we do whatever we want and can afford to celebrate any old occasion. Christmas is symbolic of hope and light and love in the face of the longest coldest winter nights. It's a good excuse to cook good food, visit with folks we are too busy to see during the working year, and renew our family ties with some good clean fun. My house gets it annual turnout cleaning and the tree is decorated with things that are meaningful to us (Sissy's handmade ornaments and other stuff given to us with love). People give me new Santas every year so my house is stuffed with them.

  Spending lots of money is NOT the object, and when we are broke our kids are as happy with homemade treats and new socks as they are when we have $$$ for big ticket toys. Love is the reason for celebrating isn't it? Maybe we're just incredibly lucky to have nice kids but having no money has never put much of a crimp in our joyous Yuletide Solstice parties.

  My advice is to do what you feel good doing. Find your personal comfort level and don't be pressured into 'celebrating' when you don't feel right about it. You have the rest of your life to figure this stuff out; meanwhile enjoy every day and don't let any holiday become a chore.
• 

  Yerusalyim

  Well written DogPatch, WOOOHOOOO!

  Larc, good on ya, my wife has pretty much done the "fade away" exit too. She didn't even go to the Memorial last year. YEAHHHHH!

  YERUSALYIM
  "Vanity! It's my favorite sin!"
  [Al Pacino as Satan, in "DEVIL'S ADVOCATE"]
• 

  AmazingProgeny

  My family and I celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving.

  For us, Thanksgiving is a time to gather with our family and close friends and to be grateful for all that we have. I cook a huge amount of food and we have a great time.

  Christmas is partly about family and our faith. We like to exchange gifts, within reason, decorate a tree and the house, have meals together, and go to church together. It is a time when we work harder to show our love for each other and for God. We are going to work on doing more to help others this year too.

  We celebrate all the holidays and birthdays. I love watching the joy my children take in each of our celebrations. I don't want to ever deprive them of that. I am a little glad that I missed it all b/c it makes it more special to me now. For me all holidays are a chance for our family to gather together, share our love, share good food, laugh, have fun, and be thankful that we are so blessed to have each other. I think that the holidays are what you make of them. We make them about family, faith, and love.

  Halloween is my birthday and I am looking forward to having lots of fun and eating way too much candy. My kids love that it is my birthday and I think they are all trying to find ways to give me a little gift. We will have lots of fun.

  AP
• 

  California Sunshine

  Dogpach....Thank you again....Knowledge is power!

  As for me...I do what my heart tells me.

  I celebrate what I want to and have fun.

  "Family Appreciation Day"...I like that.

  25 years out of the borg...If you are out there God..THANK YOU!

  minds are like parachutes--they only function when open.
• 

  Englishman

  We don't have Thanksgiving in the UK. We do go bananas at Christmas though. Work finishes at noon Christmas Eve and the pubs are packed solid until midnight. Christmas day is spent with the family, in my road the neighbours all drop in on each other for sherry or whatever in the morning. Next day - Boxing day, is a mega sports day with local derbys between the various soccer clubs. Then its a week of celebrating - most people are still off work - until New Years Eve. Back to work around the 4th or 5th of January is the norm nowadays.

  Englishman.

  Nostalgia isn't what it used to be....
• 

  Billygoat

  *sad smile*

  My JW parents always said, "We don't need to celebrate Christmas. As JW's we aren't restricted to ONE day a year. We can show our love to each other ALL YEAR LONG!" Woohoo! Like that was any different than the worldly people?! Did they really only love each other on Christmas morning? Seemed strange to me even as a child, that we couldn't celebrate Christmas under that guise, but didn't get presents or love any other time of the year anyway. I was a confused child. Wait - I still am! (((())))

  But in answer to your question...a hearty YES! I have faithfully celebrated EVERY holiday since my leaving in 1990. I have no regrets. Someone else mentioned the holidays are what you make of it. And I wholeheartedly agree! If it seems to be a time of just commercialism and greediness in a particular household - it's because they made it that way! If it is a time of showing love, appreciation, and happiness with family and friends - it's because they made it that way! I choose to make the Holiday Season a time of re-connecting with what's important to me. My faith, my God, my friends, and my family. I give gifts and I get gifts, but that is not the focus of ANY holiday I celebrate. Fellowship and sharing is. I love my holidays! It's the perfect reminder throughout the year to think about what life is made of - love.

  Andi
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  BobsGirl

  This will be the first year that I have a tree and I can't wait. I love to cook and love to celibrate, but haven't had the courage to let my home show it until this year. It will be my son's first Christmas. Yippee.

  BobsGirl

  "May the work of your hands be a sign of gratitude and reverence to the human condition." - Mahatma Gandhi