Does Our Being Former JWs Affect Our Enjoyment of XMas? (page 3)

restrangled

Every year, I have always been thrilled to decorate....inside....never out. Plan dinner, purchase gifts on the Internet....etc. etc.

This year was the exception.....I dragged in the tree, put up about 20 ornaments, and plugged it in twice. It is now down and back out to the garage.

Its been tough this year keeping up with payroll, insurance, accounting fees, taxes etc, let alone normal bills.

My background as a jw really kicked in, especially after I had received a printout from a Jewish website. It seemed to pull up and confirm everything from the past.

On a positive note, we had a wonderful day as a family, with a delicious dinner, and spent the evening watching the revamped Vertigo movie on a large flat screen TV, munching on plenty of deserts. It was probably one of the best Christmas's we've had.

It was more about being together than gifts or the day.....We all sat together on a huge leather couch, with the dog snuggled in, ....it was like old times as a family! Somehow it had nothing to do with Christmas. It was about our family, our history and reconnecting.

r.

cantleave

I'll let you next years when hopefully we will do a full blown Christmas.

Aussie Oz

Mind you, I had the most alien thought the other day. Frankly it freaked me out to just think it!

I thought of having xmas at my house for the whole family. It would have to be a real tree... the smell just takes me bask to my last one at 10. Sad thing is though, even if my scheduled visitation from the kids fell on that day, the ex would change it.

oz

OnTheWayOut

If you are a former JW and you read and/or post on this forum, then being a former JW affects most everything you do.

It lessens over time, at least I hear that. And that's possibly contingent on what family members are still in and how they treat you.

mouthy

Paul I know how you felt. Dont let the WT plant the hatred for holidays in your life,

Your so young,I never celebrated Christmas for 25 yrs I was a JW ( & two years while I was studying before)
I made my husbands life miserable at these times ( as he was not a JW) My son left home because I tried
to make him believe I was right , he didnt want to be a JW( what a fool I was, he died when he was 46,
I wish I had not chased him out of my home with the garbage teaching of the WT
I made my three daughters JWS------Melanie Died at 42yrs old,Annmarie shuns me( still a JW)
Thank God Susan left the WT after her Jehovahs Witness hubby beat her & commited adultery
she is a Christian NOW!

A real one now she Loves God & is so happy she left the organization

They are all gone,I cannot celebrate this family time... because of the memories I have of what I did
to them( & 10 other besides my family)Dont do this to your family Paul .Love your family enjoy them get rid of the Crap the WT instilled in you

paul from cleveland

Thank you Mouthy. I do love my family. I participated in the dinner and the gift exchange but I just can't get the watchtower worldview out of my head. I don't hate the holidays but Christmas still seems wrong to me on so many levels. I just didn't enjoy myself there. I told my family I wasn't feeling well and left right after dinner.

mrsjones5

I wished I could enjoy Christmas when I was in and I totally enjoy it now that I am out. It's about family, friends, good cheer, Christmas lights, fattening food, and holiday songs. Who cares about the pagan origins...I don't.

mouthy

Paul darling!you said>I just didn't enjoy myself there.No I know what you mean
But try harder next year,,,,Think of all the Pagan things we do in our every day lives
You see because I was just like you I NEVER SPEND TIME WITH ANYONE AT CHRISTMAS!!!
I see all the families laughing happy getting together as I look out my window.
But because I have got into the HABIT of being" SCROUGE "it will never change.
You were kind to say your werent feeling well.
I do hope you dont end up like me,examine all the WT teachings ,they used to celebrate it
But when they realized they could seperate families & keep them as free salesmen,they stopped.
I stopped wearing my wedding ring when I found out that was pagan I was hauled into the
library & told I MUST wear it,even if it was,,,, as I was giving off that I was single without it?
So If you dont want to think of it as Pagan ,think of it as a LOVE FEAST!!!
Yeah I know I am a pain in the arse, but that is what Grannies are sometimes ((((HUG))))

WTWizard

What I am seeing is a few that hated the holidays before they became witlesses--obviously, their being witlesses did not affect their enjoyment of the holidays.

As for people like me, I used to like the lights and the trimmings of the holidays. The witlesses made me throw away my Christmas decorations, but once I am no longer under their direct influence, I now have even more lights than I had to throw away. Of course, it would have helped to have someone to share it with, but that is not 100% the witlesses (Jehovah Himself has to take the blame for initiating that; the witlesses did exploit that situation).

People that are born in have heard nothing but negative things about Christmas. They have been programmed to associate it with the demons from the start, and hence are much more likely to not be able to enjoy it if they ever leave the cancer. However, if they do try and realize that there are no demons, there is as good a chance as not that they will like the trimmings as much as everyone else.

designs

One of my adult kids jumped right in and enjoys the Holiday and the other thinks its a commercial joke.

But they are free to choose and that's what matters. FREEDOM

Does Our Being Former JWs Affect Our Enjoyment of XMas?

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