"we don't need holidays as an excuse to give gifts to our children"

by Sour Grapes 41 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Sour Grapes

  Before my mother became a Jehovah's Witness I remember

  the fun of Christmas and opening the beautifully wrapped

  gifts under the Christmas tree. Then she bought a pair

  of magazines on a Saturday morning for $.10 and 6 months

  later she became totaly brainwashed.

  There were no Christmas gifts the next year. Growing up

  mom would tell our neighbors or people out in service around

  the holdidays or if the bad pagan custom of birthdays came up

  that "we don't need holidays as an excuse to give gifts to

  our children."

  The only problem that I saw with what mom said is that I no

  longer got wrapped gifts. I really don't remember receiving

  many unwrapped gifts either. I think the only time that I got

  wrapped gifts again is when I got married.

  I wonder if other JW kids had the same kind of experience

  that I had?

  Sour Grapes
• 

  Found Sheep

  I didn't get much either!!! I'd say the same thing to my worldly friends but deep down inside knew I just didn't get too many gifts....
• 

  nugget

  Wrapped gifts did happen but they were very occasional and without the reason to celebrate that the holidays provided there was no incentive to make the effort. You got gifts when you got engaged and married and sometimes when you got baptised but appart from that it was a not something that featured in our lives.

  One gift every year or so does not equate to all the missed holidays and celebrations and for many of my generation you got the things you needed such as meeting clothes and a bible and were told these were presents.
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  alanv

  I used to say that when I was a witness as well, and I can remeber practically never giving anyone a present again.
• 

  JeffT

  I guess my wife and I were bad witnesses. Both of us were converts, and I think we missed the holiday's to some degree. Anyway, we always made a celebration out of our anniversary, wrapped gifts, special dinners etc. The kids learned to start looking forward to it, the buildup was not unlike Christmas in a normal house. After we left the anniversary got to be less of deal, but we went crazy with Christmas.

  edited to add, I think we were the only ones, and I don't remember being counseled about it, but I think we might have been told to keep it to ourselves as we were making everybody else look bad.
• 

  thetrueone

  "we don't need holidays as an excuse to give gifts to our children"

  Exactly and most people who have the means give their children toys and gifts all year long anyways.

  Not only is the date itself fictitious but all the commercialization of this religious festival is way overboard and to some extent annoying.

  Its more of a Sellebration than anything. $$$

  I also think the stress that this stupid time of year brings onto people is unwarranted and unnecessary.

  I usually go on holidays somewhere to avoid all the anxiety.
• 

  CAL69

  My brother and I stopped getting any kinds of gifts from our parents too. Luckily we have a large extended family who aren’t witnesses and who felt sorry for us so they would give us birthday and Christmas presents. Granted, our parents wouldn’t allow us to open them on our actual birthday or Christmas, it was usually a week or so later. Still, it made us feel somewhat normal…
• 

  Judicial Committee

  The holidays are just fine; if someone who was once a Witness is perturbed by them, it is mostly the bad sick controlling spirit, that being a Witness inoculated you with. Call it the power of Cult, or any other term, but for me being a Jehovah’s Witness made my life distorted and altogether weird and bordering on unsociably inept .
• 

  Retrovirus

  thetrueone, It's a shame you only see the "dark side" of Christmas. Every light casts a shadow, just as every cloud has a silver lining.

  Growing up, we were not religious, but Christmas Eve was a great family gathering; traditional foods, house smelling of fir and candles everywhere, great heaps of presents. And Coca Cola which we never got otherwise.

  I tried to maintain the spirit of celebration and warmth for my children. Not always easy, but financial planning and saving during the year prevents the stress. And it's about so much more than the presents!

  Last year I had two European backpackers staying with me, so we observed the Advents together, and made the traditional cinnamon stars. And less traditional kangaroos, and koalas. Then we opened a bottle to wash down the artistic failures.

  The charity we support at work gave a couple of hundred dollars to each of the African orphanages supported. The walls were covered with pictures of radiant children on their first ever jumping castle, and of the cards they made for their teachers and carers.

  "Correct" date or not, that's Christmas!

  PS - quite a contrast to the gloomy Awake featuring a drunken office party and explaining that the Christmas "star" had been planted by Satan.
• 

  MrMonroe

  Anyone, Christian or non-Christian, has the right to decide whether they want to celebrate Christmas or not.

  This religion decides that if anyone decides as a matter of conscience that they can do so (as did Charles Russell and his followers who, ahem, Jesus chose as his faithful slave in 1918 or 1919), they should be expelled and that no member of the religion should ever speak to them again.