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

by Sour Grapes 41 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  WTWizard

  First, I will mention that most witlesses don't receive many toys. Instead, the money goes to the Worldwide Pedophile Defense Fund or towards attending the Grand Boasting Session. If they have the means, they would rather snake-give toys to their children--besides, toys would make them not want to do more field circus and give them a reason to want to stop before bedtime.

  Another thing they are missing out on is the fun in watching things progress toward Christmas. I can remember the fun starting when I got the Sears Wish Book. It started shortly after we re-entered school for the new school year. The leaves changing color led into Halloween, where we had trick or treats. After that, Thanksgiving was the main topic. From that, the Christmas decorations went up. All the while, I got homework--out of that Wish Book, deciding what I wanted Santa to bring me. It added up. Then, we had our share of discussions about Santa, the gifts, and of course Jesus. Christmas carols started to play on the radio, along with the Christmas TV specials. I especially liked it when the Christmas tree went up--even to this day, a Christmas tree is fun to watch. Then, we had 2 major trips (of 100 km or more, lasting most of the day) associated with Christmas. Then, Christmas Day meant opening up the presents.

  And, it wasn't all gone once the last present was opened. We would have that week to play with the toys. After, whenever my parents visited anyone or I went to the sitters, Christmas lingered into January and February as I got to see what they got. Effectively, I was affected in some way by Christmas by more than 5 months out of the year.

  Rather, the witlesses get to sit around and mope. September brings another year of pious-sneering, endless field circus, and having homework to finish but not having time because they are always out in field circus or at a damn boasting session when they should be working on it. Rarely do they have the time to play. They are never given a Wish Book, and they don't get to watch the progression of holidays. If they do see it, they are made sick by it because it is supposed to be Satanic to even enjoy the Christmas lights. Then, they get time off and are supposed to waste it pious-sneering. Back to school, back to the same old. They also miss out on what everyone else got because no one else got anything either.

  So, the Grand Boasting Session is supposed to be the highlight. Yes, they build up this wastefest. Yes, they build up on the REJECT Jesus Party. What with? The REJECT Jesus Party season is marked with pious-sneering, more of the same dreary activity. Then, there are all the rules to abide by during the Grand Boasting Session. Once it is done, rather than ending up getting stuff, they usually end up having to throw away things. They are supposed to crack down on things like music, movies, and activities other than wasting the remainder of their summer vacation pious-sneering. Again, it is very rare for anyone else to get anything for the Grand Boasting Session.

  Now that I am back to doing the holidays, I would rather provide a little something in the way of building up to the holidays. No, I am not handing out toys--but, once the kids see the Halloween stuff going up shortly after school starts, they know it's in sight. Yes, they will have to wait. But, at least some of the fun is beginning. And, then when I transition to Christmas, at least they get to see things going up. Visitors see the decorations, and I have heard of people coming up from the New York City area impressed on the job I did in the hall. (The other tenants in the building mention how they had someone come up from New York City and was impressed.) After the holiday, I am slow at taking them down so people can still have at least some fun into February. Sure beats going out in field circus and preparing for the REJECT Jesus Party.
• 

  darthfader

  I beleive that ignoring holidays and birthdays etc. also hides/masks the passage of time from the JW rank and file. When people put significant planning into a special event day (like a birthday), it further punctuates that arrival of that day and makes the passage of time more apparent.

  The Witnesses are encouraged to live each day the same as the last -- this disconnects them from the passage of time and further hides the errors and changes of the JW teachings.

  As a kid we has regular family celebrations until I was 5 or 6. Then my parents got the "Truth".. We no longer spent any time with my grandparents or extended relatives on holidays etc.
• 

  life is to short

  JeffT

  There was a family who I heard about doing the same thing you did on their anniversary and it was really looked down on. I remember the talk as I as a teenager at the time, the elder's wives were saying that they just might as well celebrate Christmas the way they act.

  And yeh I NEVER got any true gifts either.

  LITS
• 

  Band on the Run

  The Supreme Court in its religious display cases has ruled that Christmas can be entirely secular with no religious overtones. Hence, a creche or navitiy scene in a public space is forbidden b/c it is so religious but a creche with some reindeer or Santa is perfectly ok. Christmas trees are permissible.
• 

  tenyearsafter

  I agree that JW's, as a whole, were less likely to give gifts...this was true in our house growing up. The only wrapped present I ever received was from "worldly" relatives...and then I was made to feel guilty for accepting them by my JW mother and friends. I was inviting Satan in to my life with this weakness!

  When I grew up and had kids, it always bothered me that they didn't get the opportunity to enjoy simple things like Christmas and Birthdays, so being the closet pagan that I was, we used to do "Present Day" a couple times a year. We would wrap presents and hide them all over the house...then the kids would have to hunt for them, gather them together and then we watched them open their presents as a family. Though my kids are not JW's now, they still look fondly back on "Present Days" as one of the highlights of the year for them. They told me it made them feel special, and it made me feel like I was providing a semi-normal upbringing for them. Now we all get together for Thanksgiving and Christmas and enjoy each other's company, so "Present Day" lives on in spirit!
• 

  PSacramento

  Nope we/you don't need a holiday to give kids gifts or to celebrate the birth of your child or to tell mom and dad we love them or to be thankful, nope non one really needs special days for that.

  Yet, WHEN was thelast time YOU did any of that? or THEY did any of that?

  Exactly.

  Special days do NOT take the place of telling those we love that we love them and showing that we love them, what special days do is remind Us that those we love DESERVE to be viewed as special, that it is right to remember the birth of our children as a sepcial day we were blessed by God, that it is right to have a special day to give MORE thanks than usual and that it is right to remember ANY special day we CHOOSE to remember.

  When we dedicate a day for show even MORE LOVE than we normally show, we are truly honouring God, for God is Love.
• 

  Sour Grapes

  When I was a young child and my parents celebrated Christmas,

  it was not about Jesus and his birth. To a young child it is the

  smell of the pine tree, the Christmas cookies, the expectation

  and excitment, how people seemed to be much more friendlier,

  and being with family and visiting family. After my mom got

  hooked on $.10 worth of magazines and all of the above stopped,

  we also stopped visiting our families because now they were pagans

  and our families viewed us as odd and did not come around any more.

  Oh the blessings of being a JW. Not only was the fun of being a child

  taken away but so were my aunts and uncles and cousins.

  Sour Grapes
• 

  Meeting Junkie No More

  I beleive that ignoring holidays and birthdays etc. also hides/masks the passage of time from the JW rank and file. When people put significant planning into a special event day (like a birthday), it further punctuates that arrival of that day and makes the passage of time more apparent.

  The Witnesses are encouraged to live each day the same as the last -- this disconnects them from the passage of time and further hides the errors and changes of the JW teachings.

  As a kid we has regular family celebrations until I was 5 or 6. Then my parents got the "Truth".. We no longer spent any time with my grandparents or extended relatives on holidays etc.

  Really agree with you here, darth. No one day stands out as memorable, every day is more of the same and it almost makes life seem circular, measuring the weeks by the days that have meetings and the days that don't - what a hell of a way to live.

  Now that we're out, we celebrate just about everything! We can look back on our birthdays and remember what we did THAT DAY because it was something SPECIAL. And it does mark the passage of time. It makes life so much more exciting - all the planning and preparations - which reminds me - time to make the fruitcake now so it really moistens up for Xmas!

  I've always been a big gift giver, especially to my children. But seeing that we don't really NEED much in a material way these days, we're looking into gifting a goat or some other animal to a family in another area of the world where this will mean the difference between life/death and eating/not eating. That represents the SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS, even without the gift-giving, that Witnesses completely miss out on, especially those that have never experienced it (born ins). I, at least, had 8 or 9 before the holiday-devoid Witness life kicked in, so I am enjoying rekindling those memories. It's not just about the gifts, but the warmth of family and friends, caring for the less fortunate and the specialness of that particular day. And I look forward to it all year - only 61 days and counting!

  Oh, and one more thing - in the Witness world there is NEVER A HOLIDAY. If it's a 'worldly' holiday, that's no excuse for not witnessing - all the more reason to go out and knock on doors to get those who are finally home...you would be expected to do MORE even though you were supposed to be enjoying a day off. I think the Witness mentality is actually one of "we don't need holidays". Again, what a way to live. Terrible.
• 

  PSacramento

  I really don't get the issues that soem have with Christmas.

  We don't make it commercial, we don't make it about gifts, though the kids to love opening presents and making the tree.

  There is no stress or going crazy at the mall or shopping and spening a fortune.

  I don't get people that DO that and complain about it.

  Just don't do it then.

  I tell me kids that Christmas is the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus, NOT the DAY he was born.

  I recall when Sofia asked me the first time when WAS he born and I said we don't know but 100's of years ago, people decided to celebrate it on the 25th of December and that some think it is and others think that it isn't, but we don't know one way or another so because of that, we don't celebreat the DAY he was born, but we celebrate that HE WAS Born.
• 

  ziddina

  Another big factor in the dearth of presents in general in the Jehovah's Witnesses' lives is the generally poverty-stricken state that many Jehovah's Witness families are in...

  I remember how "hand-to-mouth" my parents' lives were - which was really weird, because they were both WORKING throughout most of my childhood!! Yet they were always screaming about the lack of money...