Did your family ever makeup holidays? (page 2)

Cicatrix

Our gift days coincided with conventions and assemblies. I would buy the gifts and wrap them beforehand and place them where the kids could rattle them and try to figure out what they were. They would get to open one before we left-usually new clothes and some fun notepads and pens to make the assembly less boring. When we got home, we would do the toy gifts. I think it took the sting out of having to spend three days sitting and being "good", lol.

willyloman

In January they would have a big party and give gifts to the kids. Crazy.

Not crazy. Why not applaud the parents who brought a little sanity into the otherwise dysfunctional lives of their children? At least that way, the kids could say they got something when they were quizzed by the others at school.

In my years in the organization, I saw parents go out of their way to make up for the lack of holiday celebrations. They took fun trips during Christmas vacation, had costume parties on the night of the school prom, staged dance parties and big get-togethers (back before the WTS put the kibosh on those), and otherwise compensated the best way they could.

Most of the kids who got to party during the year were much better able to cope with the loss of Christmas and other holidays (although I am NOT minimizing the damaging effect of this). Witness kids are taught by their parents to say, "Well, we get/give gifts all year long, not just when it's expected." But in actual practice few of them ever got or gave any gifts so they knew that was a lie, even as they told it.

Given that the kids are "in the troof" anyway, which is worse? I think most kids would have preferred to have party/celebration parents.

SheilaM

I did everything I could to get around not celebrating...so on Thunder and I's Anniversary I would make it for the kids too. So we would have a cake and presents TONS of presents for the kids.

Then I started Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving....it was just a turkey

Then on the kids birthdays I would do something for them like buy them a toy

Christmas was the hardest for Thunder to celebrate, now he loves it we have celebrated three years.

Easter is still kinda weird when the kids were home I had a basket and would stuff it for them

Corvin

I had never really heard of such a thing until recently. I had just won custody of my kids from thier JW mother, and being able to use email like normal kids was a big deal for them (they were not allowed to use the computer in their mom and stepdad's home). I was monitering their emails and teaching them how to identify spam, porn and stuff like that until they got the hang of it. While helping my youngest daughter, 12, with some technical stuff I read an email sent to her by a JW girl she grew up with. The girl, in her email, was telling my daughter about how her parents let her celebrate her birthday, but not really celebrate it. I was astounded that her JW parents did this. I was still defending the org and their docrtrines at the time while still df'd so I called the girls dad, an old friend of mine, to ask "what the hell???"

He explained that he felt he had made mistakes with his first two kids and was too hard on them, too strict, and he felt that it was a good thing to give each of the kids a special day each year, any day that did not fall on their birthday, to have a party for them and receive wrapped gifts. It was in effect, a substitute birthday celebration. Hmm . . . interesting.

Corvin

Elsewhere

Yup... every year all the relatives would get together for a big turkey dinner with all the fixins.... one or two days before or after Thanksgiving.

They would do something similar with Christmas.

Funny how we always got a bunch of candy after Halloween when the candy went on sale.

Ohhhh and the chocolate bunnies after Easter.

Then there was the big fireworks display we would put on just before or after 4th of July and New Years.

I think the only thing I missed out of was gifts. (Cheapskates)

Sassy

When I was married to my first husband (17 yr marriage) each year on our anniversary we had a celebration of our family. If I was still married to him now and was out of the JW like I am, I think I would still do that in addition to the holidays I know celebrate.. that wedding was the beginning of our lives as a family. Usually though we didn't make it all the say till Feb 17.. I'd have them wrapped and out on a shelf or table a week or two earlier and generally we got talked into opening them early..

One year the kids opened them up when we were sleeping.. BOY were they in trouble.. they never did that again.

TRUTH SEEKER

My mother was in and my dad was out, so we celebrated their anniversary. The only holiday allowed right? I read that in someone else's post too. My mom thought it was important to teach her children the "better to give than receive" rule. We also always went to my dads family for Thanksgiving, but it was always said that it was just because everyone was off work and we could all get together.

Friends of ours did celebrate their kids b-days. They allowed the kids to pick whatever the family ate for dinner that day. How lame.

These days I celebrate EVERYTHING- and I love it!

Jill

lfwalli

Happy Day. It was always in January...when x-mas gifts were on sale...

Did your family ever makeup holidays?

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