by Dawn 8 Replies latest jw friends
Hi all:
I initiated a christmas tradition with my son when he was little and have continued it all these years - thought I'd share it with you in case you have little ones.
Since my kids just CAN'T WAIT to open their presents, I wrap one special gift for them to open x-mas eve. It's always the same thing - brand new pajamas and a cuddly toy for bed time. My kids absolutely loved this christmas eve tradition.
That's one thing I love about being out of the org!
My kids love it when I totally deck out the place for x-mas! They know very little about my jw background so that makes me appreciate the holidays even more!
laters
kaykay_mp
I've been out about 14 yrs now. My son knows about the JW background as he was about 4 when I left and he continued to go to meetings with my parents until he was in Jr. High. Thank goodness he decided they're (JW's) full of it. My daughter doesn't know about it - she came along LONG after I was out.
I'm so glad that both of my kids have been raised with holidays, birthdays, normal lives.
Hi. I'm new around here, and I was wondering what you(everyone who wants to respond) teach your children about Christmas. Do you teach them that it's the birthday of Jesus? Or that it's just a day that everyone exchanges gifts? Just curious.
Hi 3rdEye. That depends on what your beliefs are. For me - I teach my daughter that Christmas is a time to celebrate Christ, but she also knows that's not his ACTUAL birthday - just the day chosen to celebrate it.
Hi, Dawn!
Another nice thing to do is to make gingerbread houses. This is something that kids can do even if they are in a divided household without getting geeked that they're participating in something "pagan." When my kids, who were being brought up as Witnesses (by me! .<insert rolling eyes icon here> ) had visits from their Christian cousins at Christmas time, this is something we could all do together without anyone being offended.
outnfree
I have been out along time so have celebrated many Christmases. My kids never knew what it was like to not have Christmas.
What I did with my kids and now my grandkids is each year they get an ornament attached to a present. It has the date and I sign it. I try and make it something pertaining to what was special for them that year. The kids ornaments went on my tree until they grew up and moved out. When they put their first tree up they have a good start of ornaments that mean something to them and they will always have something from me, or MawMaw & PawPaw in the grandkids case.
Those are nice traditions. I love the PJ Christmas Eve presents! We always let the kids open one present Christmas Eve. Just a preview of the morning to come. Since my parents are always there Christmas Eve, they open a gift from them since they may not be there the next morning.
My dad always reads them The Night Before Christmas before they go to bed.
Every year my mom has them over to decorate gingerbread men. They were chomping at the bit to go this year! It was yesterday.
Every year the entire family goes to Seattle to ride the holiday carousel, we go to Starbucks for coffee, then we head to Bon-Macy's to shop for ornaments. It's quite a crowd some years. My parents, three brothers and their wives and kids always go. This year Steve's sister and brother-in-law will be with us. His mom wants to go. Some early 'festers will be with us as well.
Our boy is now 11 weeks old. This year for the first time ever we are going to the annual chrismas street party. Just our neighbours having a chrismas get-together. They have someone play santa, and give out presents pre-supplied by the parents. My wife went out and bought Taydan his. Obviously, he wont understand a single thing. Its more for us at this stage, trying to fit in and source a new crowd of friends. Its amazing, but we dont know hardly anyone in the street, but we have been here 3 years.
We are just going to enjoy the tradition, and let it go on from there.
