Do you do Christmas? (page 3)

delilah

Yes, we definitely DO the Christmas holiday thing....to the nines!!!! I have always missed celebrating the holidays, when my parents became JW's, so it was only natural for me to go back to celebrating after i left the borg. My husband was not a JW when we married, so he was kinda upset that we didn't celebrate for the first 5 years or so. We went to his family to celebrate, which was most enjoyable, but it wasn't long, until he said, "This is enough," and he began to put up a tree, and lights etc. Now, I go crazy decorating, and cooking, and baking....giving gifts.....it's so much fun.....

riko

Lol Delilah, that sounds familiar

Yes this will be my first christmas but it's gonna be fantastic (I hope). It's weird that I don't feel guilty about celebrating it, I guess it's because I don't really view it as a religious celebration, all I see is lights, food and sparkly stuff! I've just bought a xmas cookbook and have already done 80% of my xmas shopping (not a difficult task when most of the people I know are JWs so they're off the list)

I can't wait to experience what my parents always told me I'm "not missing"

fullofdoubtnow

This will be my first christmas out of the org, the first time I have had the opportunity to celebrate it since 1980, so I don't know what I'll do yet, but I am going to have some kind of celebration, probably with my mate dedpoet, he's had a bit more recent practice than me, so I'll look to him for guidance. I am looking forward to it.

caligirl

Absolutely! I love everything christmas, and can't get enough of it. I always loved the decorations & trees and all growing up hated that we didn't celebrate. So now, I have a lot of years to make up for. It did feel strange at first, but mostly because I felt so STUPID that I was so ignorant of traditions and how to go about it all. Now I go all out and and am very anxious to catch up on collecting lots of christmas stuff. By my age, as an old married lady, I feel like I am supposed to have amassed quite a collection and I have a lot of catching up to do!

SallySue

Oh, yes, I love Christmas. And, Mass is beautiful, especially at Christmas and Easter. One year at Christmas we celebrated the Lord's Supper as a family. That was a most moving celebration for me and my family, taking the bread and the wine, remembering Christ who died on the cross for our sins at the time we celebrate His birth.

I have a tree and decorations, but I've been out for about 35 years so have had a long time getting over the guilt of the JW cult.

Carol

We started doing christmas in 1989. We'd just moved to Florida and my son was 14. The first thing he asked after we were settled in, was if we could have a tree this year? I told him of course we could, he could have had one when we lived in NJ, his reply was he didn't want to have to listen to his grandmother, aunt and uncle lecture me and make my life miserable. But he'd like to have one now. His sister was 20 months old, so we went out before Christmas and bought a tree, lights and decorations. We've had a tree ever since.

I'd always put presents at the end of his bed, but we'd never decorated or did anything showey because of the JW family in the area (my ex wasn't a JW, but both his parents were alcoholics so he couldn't have cared less if we celebrated, so we didn't).

I know it's a "pagan" holiday, but I've always felt that while I'm glad Jesus "died for our sins", I'm even happier that he was born! I celebrate the caring and sharing at Christmas!

blondie

Subset question:

Do ex-JW guys celebrate Christmas buying a tree, decorations, food, music or do you leave it up to the women in your life to do those things?

My father was a non-JW, yet never made any move to get a tree or decorations or buy gifts for any one. Was he just a cheap bastard or lazy or is it traditionally the woman's job to coordinate such celebrations?

Blondie

Carol

Blondie I think some men just take the easy way out. We had wonderful Christmas' up until 1959....my Dad always bought a live tree (with the ball attached to be planted later) and set up a wonder train track under it. My mother always bought the gifts. My mother decided to be baptised in January of 1960 so the Christmas of 1959 my father set up the tree and decorated it and set up the train and village......but when we came out Christmas morning there were no presents under it. His explanation was......our mother said no presents....so no presents. Christmas of 1960, all we had for Christmas was a fight between my parents.

Frog

I volunteered as shelter last year on xmas day, it was a really awesome day, planning to do the same again this year:)

enjoy your xmas with your hubbies family, it will be great for you. xmas with family is the best:)) frog x

misanthropic

I volunteered as shelter last year on xmas day, it was a really awesome day, planning to do the same again this year:)

That’s a wonderful thing to do Frog!

And yes we definitely celebrate here, my husband had lots of family!

Do you do Christmas?

Share this