As a JW Did you want Christmas? (page 2)

WhyNow2000

Never cared for that herd mentality..even if i was in one. I think it saved me a lot of stress that comes from "requiring" to buy presents with the money you dont have. Christmas is one thing i could live without. On the other hand holloween is another story.

mommy1

Being a JW kid, I Dreaded Christmas day, a boring day with nothing to do, and Thanksgiving too.

Mulan

I was 4 the last time my family had Christmas. I missed it, but didn't realize it until a few years ago. I remember clearly when I was about 8 or 9, staying up late on Christmas Eve and looking into the sky to see if I could see Santa Claus. I still believed, just thought he didn't come to our house anymore.

I used to say it didn't bother me because I got presents all year round. But........so did all the kids who celebrated Christmas. I didn't know anyone who had to wait for their birthday or Christmas to get a gift. Maybe a special gift, but everyone got presents all year.

RandomTask

Yes very much so. I had never celebrated christmas and when I was a kid I hated going back to school after christmas break when everyone would say what neat stuff they got. My parents believed in NO gifts between November and December. To be quite honest the only time my family gave me gifts was on my parents anniversary. I see my little cousins growing up without christmas and it sadens me. My family is not giving at all and sees no need to buy presents. My family did not give presents all year and found it a chore to give us gifts on the one day they put aside. Maybe if I had grown up getting gifts I would not be so bitter about not getting a Christmas.

This is Scarlet I posted under my husband again damn it.

Edited by - RandomTask on 16 November 2002 11:49:50

caligirl

I always wanted to celebrate. I remember loving going to my grandmother's house around the holidays and just staring at her tree, wishing that we could have one too, and acting like I wasn't looking at it whenever my parents came in the room. Always loved Christmas music too. Probably why I love the holiday so much now - making up for deprivation!! I hated having to tell the kids at school that I didn't celebrate then having to act like it really didin't bother me(read: I was a big fat liar every time I said that!) and how we got gifts all year long blah blah blah.

RubyTuesday

Scarlet...that is just wrong!! What is your address?? I want to send you a gift.E-mail me.

MYOHNSEPH

My childhood was that of an 11th child of a sharecropper in Southern Mississippi in the 1940s and early 1950s. Even if we had not been JWs, I don't think it would have made much difference. Our big thing each year was getting to order a new pair of overalls out of the Sears & Roebuck catalog after we had sold the cotton crop. If we had not been JWs, my dad would probably have been compelled to go outside on Christmas Eve, fire his shotgun in the air, and then try to convince us all that Santa had committed suicide.

mouthy

No Being the self rightous JW I was- I was happy to "give up" christmas- All I remembered about it was my hubby & father & son would get plastered & we had to pay back the money I had borrowed to buy the kids gifts all year >just get finished paying it when Wham! we were back at Christmas again....I still spend Christmas alone- after not celebrating for 0ver 25 years ( baptized 21+studied for 3-4 years before that- then being lost for two years after they 'ousted" me. I feel there must be much heartache around the world at this time. Folks with no friends, shunned JWs, family who have lost members in death, those who died in the war. ( their family)

Oh where is my crying towel!!!!!!Sorry I should have stayed with the MOUTH closed eh!?

I do buy 7 great grandchildren gifts, 7 grandchildren, 2 children, & about 6 in the group..... Oh well another year in debt!!!!!!!

Brymichmom

My mother started studying to be a JW when I was around 13 years old. After that, I didn't remember Christmas being celebrated. I recall that the first Christmas we skipped, my father put up an artificial Christmas tree anyway, just to protest my mother's actions. My aunt was studying at the same time and my uncle did the same thing.

I come from a Mexican-American family and what I really missed were all the Christmas foods that go along with it. For example, I remember when all my aunts would get together and make tamales. That was always part of the Christmas gift exchange when people would visit each other--you would get to taste someone else's tamales! Also my mother would always bake special breads and cinnamon rolls complete with colored frostings to celebrate the holidays. It was such a disappointment for all of that to stop---not to mention not having any of the relatives over for family gatherings. I missed my non JW Catholic relatives and missed the warmth that went along with the holidays. The hugs, the laughter, the happiness....it was all gone.

I am thankful that my non JW relatives were still there for me after I left the JW's 20 years ago. When I left, they began to invite me to their Christmas dinners and festivities and were so happy that I could join them. Now they were the real Christians. They just accepted me back with open arms and just glad that I could be with them again during the holidays.

Cynthia

Cicatrix

Growing up, I lived for Christmas. I would start planning it in July lol. When I first joined at age 19, I missed Christmas very much. So much so, I actually wrote a letter and told the elders that I had to quit so I didn't "bring reproach to Jehovah's name".I celebrated with my family that year, but the new heavy indoctrination I'd just gone through before baptism made me feel guilty. I saw that as a sign that Christmas was indeed bad, and returned to the meetings.Because of that experience, I didn't miss Christmas for years.But when I started to realize that the so-called fruitage of love among the witnesses just wasn't there, and I was deliriously unhappy, I began to realize that I did miss Christmas. Not so much the gifts as the tree, the twinkling lights and music, and baking cookies with my family--that type of thing.

I agree that the gift giving can get out of hand. We have set guidelines for our family that take the focus off the gifts-each kid is going to get one coveted item and few small things. My extended family has decided that we will either make gifts, or get them from the dollar store because it's really the thought that counts and not the cost of the item.Most of us are struggling college students and lack cash, but we all have great imaginations.

I bought most of our decorations at yard sales this summer. I found some absolutely beautiful classic ornaments from the 1940s that I can't wait to see on the tree! I even found a two gallon tree stand at a community sale that was held to raise money for our local firefighters.

The neat thing is watching my family who were not JWs get excited about my celebrating again. We come from a Czech background, and my dad is going to give us some recipes for some pastries that require lots of work, that we plan to get together and make, just as generations of our family did before us.My sister kept my daughter's "Baby's first Christmas" ornament, which I'm sure she will give her for a gift this year:)

I agree that it's kind of phony to talk about peace and love at only one time a year, then go back to same old same old the day after Christmas, but I have found there are lots of people out there who volunteer year round to help others in the community, and I encourage my kids to do so (I do so when I can, but its hard because of my school schedule and homework load). My son just helped the humane society build dog houses a month ago. He had a great time. We used to help out various charities when we were JW, but always got chided for taking time away from "the good news"--what a crock!

As a JW Did you want Christmas?

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