How do active JW's spend their Christmas? What do they feel?

by dgp 27 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Finally-Free

  I joined the JWs as an adult and didn't mind giving up Christmas. I resented feeling obligated to buy gifts for so many family members, especially in times of unemployment. I also resented having to hang out with family because the donut shops and burger joints were closed.

  Even before I was a JW a few friends and I used to celebrate an anti-Christmas. We'd get together and eat hot dogs, meat pies, french fries and McCain cakes. We'd buy several cases of cheap wine and go downtown to give bottles to the homeless.Their faces were radient with joy as they accepted the bottles. Yes, I suppose we were "enabling" them, but what the hell, it was Christmas. It's not like everyone else in the world was sober.

  When I was a JW my ex, my mom and I would sit at home with a nice turkey dinner and bitch about all the pagan bastards who celebrated Christmas and discussed how they would die at armageddon as we stuffed our faces.

  Now I like Christmas, but prefer to keep it low key with just a couple of friends. And we don't eat McCain cakes either.

  W
• 

  BluesBrother

  WE ALWAYS WENT OUT IN THE MINISTRY !

  It was , we joked, our Christmas tradition . Surprisingly, people were very pleasant to us even though we disturbed their family morning.

  In the afternoon, as a kid it was " just another day", some years we would have a K H meeting in the evening. The day is really boring with zilch on the telly to interest a dub, although nobody objected to watching it if they wanted to.

  I am surprised at those who could go to cinema on Christmas day...nothing has ever been open over here, and no public transport either...
• 

  nugget

  I worked most Christmases until I was a Mum then spent Christmas day at home. We did baking and watched telly. We ate what was in the house. We sometimes went out for a walk in the country as it was relatively quiet out and about.

  I still enjoyed the peace and quiet but when I had my own children I felt for them as I knew what they were missing out on. I have always taken to heart the idea of giving them gifts frequently but christmas is fun and magical. Everyone should try it at least once.
• 

  SallySue

  We used to go out in FS in the olden days. We felt so superior to all the "pagans."
• 

  blondie

  When I was in my 20's jws went skiing on the local slopes...and they too had a discount. There was a local restaurant that had free turkey dinners too. Movies too were great. (There was no public transportation...people drove. US the land of the car). There are a few 24 hour stores and restaurants, open on all the holidays. Of course, people here missed the obvious, Xmas Eve is on a meeting night this year and it rolls a round that it falls on a Sunday or a Tuesday, also meeting nights.
• 

  zarco

  We always take a trip on or near xmas. In the past it was a ski trip, more recently it is a trip to the coast. This year (about a week ago) we volunteered at a shelter for battered women. We were not able to meet the family that we helped, but we did meet the case worker and she explained how our contributions were used in great detail. It was a blast to provide real help to a family instead of offering them the xmas issue of the WT.

  z arco
• 

  mouthy

  Usually it was a war zone in our house...My husband would get a tree decorate it, order me to cook a turkey
  & of course I had to obey..But he would mock, laugh at our telling him he would die at the big A for doing all that,
  Now he is DEAD! & I spend this day,& tomorrow ,remembering what a B ch I was to him...
  Sure he knocked me around a bit, I would have knocked me around NOW If I knew what I know now DAH!!!!
  But the more you "KNOCK " the Witness belief the MORE thay believe ...Until their Minds are "undone"
  And in my humble opinion that is when the HOLY SPIRIT interrupts the thought process .

  .
• 

  SirNose586

  I know my folks aren't going to feel all that good tomorrow...they've got to entertain a socially inept man with Asperger's syndrome for a few hours...