When we were first making our way out of the JWs, we decided to start with seasonal decorations, rather than jumping head first into the holidays.
I'll never forget the first one: it was autumn, so we bought a bale of hay, some really inexpensive colourful gourds and put them in a basket decorated with some orange, yellow and red ribbon. I bought some of that "indian corn" and tied a ribbon around and put it on our front door. It was so pretty and in no way made a statement of celebrating anything "pagan". Yet the local JWs decided to make a stink about it, and I challenged them: show me exactly what part of that is associated with anything other than "autumn", and show me the scripture or WT article that says that I am not allowed to have seasonal decorations on MY house. They couldn't. They shut up about it, but it pissed them off just the same.
At Christmas time, my kids and I cut out paper snowflakes and put them on the windows. We made pictures of snowmen and put out some snowman decorations. I made a table centerpiece out of evergreen branches and pinecones. Again, certain people made accusations, but there was NOTHING scripturally wrong with anything in my house. I even laughed out loud at an Elder™ who criticized the snowman decorations, and told him that I'd get rid of them if he went home and demolished the one his kids built on their front lawn. "That's different," he said. "No, it isn't, unless you want people to see you as a hypocrite," I replied. That was the end of that. The decorations stayed up well past Christmas time - for as long as it was still wintery.
In springtime, I had some pastel coloured ribbons and wrapped them around some silk tulips and hung that on my front door. By this time, people stopped making comments, but they still raised their eyebrows. However, some of the Sisters™ caught on and started doing the same thing on their homes. Well, that just wouldn't do: as far as the Elders™ were concerned I was a bad influence on the wives, by showing them "loopholes". After Easter, I bought some cheap, marked-down egg dying kits because I wanted to experiment with dying woolen yarn. Always ready to impute wrong motives, someone ratted me out to the Elders™ and I found myself having to explain my purchase. Of course, this individual claimed I was Stumbling™ them - and I found it hilarious that a Pioneer™, someone who is supposed to be so spiritually Strong In The Truth™, could be Stumbled™ by someone like me. I suggested that perhaps Sister™ Pioneer™ should focus more on her own spirituality and less on being a busybody in my Conscience Matters™.
We didn't really put up a lot of decorations for the summer - we had a nice flower garden just like everyone else, and did fun things with the kids that didn't involve going to meetings or in Service™. We did a lot of bike riding and nature walks, and went to every kid-oriented museum exhibit, and the beach, and on picnics. We made trips to see the RCMP stables, always sure to bring some carrots and apples to feed the Musical Ride horses.
The point is, you can do things to help your kids appreciate the seasons/holidays that aren't commercialized or require you to spend more money or effort than you feel is necessary.
