They "can give gifts on any day of the year"... But do they? (page 4)

doublelife

Never got wrapped presents either. Every once in a while, my dad would save some money and take me and my brother to Toys'r'Us and let us pick out something. I only remember that happening three times. I don't have any kids but my brother has two. My mom always buys them presents. Last year, around Mother's Day, my boss asked what I was going to do for my mom. I had to go through the whole embarrassing explaination of why we don't celebrate and I gave him the line about giving gifts anytime of the year. Then he asked if I do that. He pretty much called me out and I got embarrassed and lied and said yes. I felt bad but it still didn't hit me at the time that gift giving is not in the whole jw mentality. I always thought that it was because we were poor. I now see the real reason behind it.

Albert Einstein

Farkel: Dubs are the cheapest, most selfish anal retentive assholes on this planet.

I was allways wondering, why they have to put in Kingdom Ministry reminder about tiping at restaurants during assemblies.... Isnt that obvius and everybody knows and does that??? Now I understand....

Albert

inbetween

yes, i give gifts and receive them , mostly between family members, sometimes even to friends...so it does happen, but maybe not that often as it appears to be...

teel

My wife usually likes to give gifts. But I see where you people are coming from, can't really say the same about most other JWs.

I feel as a kid having a special day to look forward to and build anticipation was much better then just popping in with a surprise present. Sure, I appreciated both, but knowing that the big Day was coming, when I will get something nice was half the fun.

designs

We did, and the congregation we were in when the kids were small had about twenty kids in our children's age group so there were lots of parties and sleep overs, those were the fun years.

shopaholic

Short answer to your question...No. There may be a few that do but its more the exception than the rule.

I had a conversation about this with an active JW friend several weeks ago. The JW mentioned something about the unity and genuine hospitality of the Witnesses so there is not a need to compensate with gifts that don't mean anything.

Even as a JW I gave gift-wrapped presents to friends and family and became known as a giver. Now ask me how many presents I've ever received from a JW? Outside of graduation from elementary school, high school and my going away party when leaving to "serve where the need is greater"...nothing. JW friends would tell me how special they felt when they received a gift from me...guess they never wanted me to feel special.

A couple of years ago, I recommended to my siblings that we choose a day and each present our parents with gifts. They made jokes about celebrating mother's and father's day but at a different time of year but they went along with it. It turned out very nice and my parents were very surprised. But here's the kicker, its so uncommon for JWs to give gifts that my young JW nieces, nephews and cousins had no idea what was going on. They asked why were we giving them gifts? My young nephew turned to his mom and said "But we don't celebrate birthdays and holidays". The concept of receiving gift-wrapped presents or even presents in general were so foreign to them.

I have always, even when I was an active JW, sent my young relatives gifts right after the holidays and have been accused of celebrating Christmas undercover. Ha...simply because I chose to take advantage of the great deals to do something nice for the kids in our family I'm celebrating the holidays?

They "can give gifts on any day of the year"... But do they?