We Don’t Give Christmas Presents; We Give Presents To Each Other All Year Long! (page 2)

hoser

I never got the presents, and I never got the Christmas either

My own experience has been somewhat different. Growing up, the joys and tinsel always seemed to dereriorate and tarnish into drunkenness, sickness, and verbal abuse. (Mom getting sick, Dad getting mean). There seemed to be a big disconnect between the celebration and the birth of Jesus, so it was not hard for me to give it up. At that though I have never been Anti-Christmas. I was the only one in my family who studied, so when the brothers came during the holiday season, like it or not, there was a Christmas tree up in the living room. Maybe the witnesses I've known are somewhat more relaxed about this. I've never known any children who lacked toys, or alternate gifts through the year. Certainly my daughter has had them.I really do think all the good things about the holidays, family togetherness baking, gift giving, fun and happiness, can and should be done, on that or any day. I'm not controlled by religion or a calendar.

fedup

What are you guys talking about, I got sooooo many presents and GIFTS growing up:

- Military style haircuts every month - the little boy bethel look was a gift from God

- The joyous sound of the alarm clock at 8am every Saturday and Sunday morning so we can be in the field service from 10am to 12pm, Service was a gift from GOD - We were GOD's earthly REPS - (BIGLY GIFT)

- Every Monday evening after supper 7h30pm to 9pm, family study night. The WT study books were a gift from God. Super interesting reading materials.

-Every Tuesday evening for 1 hour (group study) 8pm to 9pm (GIFT), Every Thursday evening 7h30pm to 9h30pm (School and service meetings) GIFT. Every Sunday afternoon from 2pm to 4pm at the Kingdom Hall, (WT study and TALK) GIFT, Meetings were a incredible gift from God, so was the Kingdom Hall a gift we had to pay for. Another exciting part of this arrangement was that every year the schedule would change - you know, to make it more interesting and screw up our routine - made us flexible - GIFT.

-Twice a year, once in the Spring and once in the Fall we had our special circuit assemblies for 2 days at a time. The talks and fellowship were Gifts from God. and the WT

- Once a year in the Summer for 3 or 4 days, depending if it was an International Convention or not, we spent our summer vacation on the road to attend a convention listening attentively to talks, speeches, presentaitons and of course, the DRAMA, on many gifted topics, my favorite, on how 8 billion people will be destroyed for us SPECIAL JWs to inherit the earth and play with lions in our newly gifted backyards. A HUGE Gift from the WT and God.

- Not having to spend money on Christmas gifts for friends and family - just donate the savings to kingdom hall work, great gift from and to GOD and the WT.

- And the most SPECIAL day fo the year - The Memorial - seeing the emblems go by and touching the sacred plate of crackers and glass of wine that no one can eat or drink from - of course, only the anointed can - Another incredible gift from God and the WT to have these future Judges and Kings in our midst.

AND the ULTIMATE GIFT - Eternal Life never to grow old and never to DIE - GIFTS, GIFTS and MORE GIFTS,

What more do you complainers want??? I see very ungrateful people here, so disappointing - WE RECEIVED SO MANY #$%##@ GIFTS, and THE GIFTS KEEP COMING!!!!

JW.ORG, BEARDS, PANTS FOR SISTERS, THE GB, especially LETT...

144thousand_and_one

I heard that nonsense excuse as a kid, repeatedly, but it certainly wasn't true in our house. I never repeated it to others as I didn't buy it myself.

TonusOH

I repeated that one, and also the ones about not celebrating Valentine's Day or Father's Day or Mother's Day. "You can do those things any time!" So... how often did we buy/receive gifts during the year? Not that often. How often did married couples celebrate anything remotely like Valentine's Day? Not very often; for many couples, not at all. How often did we treat our parents as if it was Father's/Mother's Day? Hardly ever? Never?

This is another of the ways in which a restrictive religious cult harms people. These holidays were considered evil, and so we were conditioned to reject even the spirit of these events/periods. The only concession I can remember my mother making was that she would allow us to watch the Christmas cartoons. Mostly, she did it because it kept us out of her hair for a couple of hours. To enjoy the festive nature of the holidays was to allow ourselves to be tempted. And that's such an awful thing to do to people.

Enjoy the lights. Enjoy the festivities. Enjoy the gift-giving, the costumes at Halloween, the box of chocolates on Valentines Day, the cards and gifts on Father's/Mother's Day, and so on. And have some cake on your birthday, for crying out loud.

nowwhat?

No gifts and no vacations! Coming back from Christmas break I would make up what gifts I got. And what I did and saw on vacation when in reality it was the convention.

Sea Breeze

@nowhat

And the information that was so vitally important for you to get at those events has mostly been discarded by subsequent GB’s.

Ho Ho Ho

NotFormer

Just out of curiosity, could JWs have a costume/fancy dress party at all (as long as it's not on a certain October evening)?

We Don’t Give Christmas Presents; We Give Presents To Each Other All Year Long!

Beth Sarim