The Holiday Thread

SweetBabyCheezits

[I'm sure this thread comes up several times a year by us noobs but it's new for me. BTW, I'm not advocating or opposing the celebration of holidays, just giving a perspective we've taken recently.]

Okay, so before we got DF'd a few weeks back, we weren't sure if we were going to start celebrating holidays... for a few reasons:

Due to our JW past, the whole "because that's the way we've always done it" mentality sickens me. I'm not drawn to doing things out of tradition or custom if it has no real significance to my family.
Since we're not religious and we don't believe any holy books are really holy, there's no actual need for us to celebrate religious holidays.
We didn't want friends/family to drive by and see us celebrating and make the assumption we got out of the WT so we could party with pagans.

But once we found ourselves being shunned, our perspective totally changed:

We despise the JW "separateness" thing as a method of control. To continue to NOT celebrate holidays would kinda be going along with the JW tradition. Eff that! (And by eff, I mean forget.)
Just because we celebrate, doesn't mean it's for religious reasons. We go to parties and get-togethers for no other reason than to have a good time. Why should holidays be any different? Since we don't fear an omniscient, jealous deity is waiting to see if we display a Xmas tree so he can punish us, it's a null issue.
Old JW friends/family are already judging us, regardless of holiday celebrations. We've learned that we cannot enjoy life if we're always concerned about what the decidedly uninformed think of us. If our actions aren't hurting our children, ourselves, or anyone else, whose business is it? Ours. This view has helped us recover immensely.

After arriving at these conclusions, we decided that holidays are fair game for our family with one little stipulation: we explain to our children the origins of the holidays, what they do/don't mean to many people in modern times, and what they do/don't mean to our family.

We kicked things off with Halloween and enjoyed it so much as a family, we're going all out for Thanksgiving and Xmas. My wife loves to decorate so she's especially excited about holiday stuff. Someone at work has offered us a tree so we're going to put it up this weekend and let the fun begin. Our kiddos are super-excited. Annnd I might be a little excited myself.

So how do you feel about holidays and traditions?

For those experienced in pagan tradition, what's your BEST TIP for upcoming holidays?

And, most importantly, will anyone be displaying a nativity scene with Sweet Baby Cheezits in a manger?

leavingwt

We love the holidays and we celebrate/decorate accordingly.

Lev11233

I'm actally shopping around for my first Christmas tree right now. I'm not sure if I want to get a real tree or a fake one, and I'm not sure how I'll be able to control my cat around the tree, but I am super excited to start my own holiday traditions.

Heaven

For all lurkers and new ex-JWs, here is a scripture to help explain to your JW family why your celebrations are NOT displeasing to God:

Colossians 2:16: Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. - NIV

I find it interesting that this scripture says 'New Moon celebration' as many Pagan and other non-Christian faiths' celebrations are based on the phases of the moon. I like it!

Have fun with your celebrations knowing that this scripture supports you.

miseryloveselders

I'm happy for you and your family Cheezits. I've seen your family pictures too, you have a beautiful family. I can only imagine how warm it must have felt to do holidays together as a family.

On the other hand, I get flack everytime I comment on these threads. I probably should wait on Vamp to get here before saying anything. I know he's on the same page as me. Personally, I'm somewhat thankful of my JW upbringing when it comes to holidays. I'm not exactly a people person. The thought of holidays, shopping, and spending time with people makes me irritable, and increases my anxiety. I've never been particulary social, and I avoid JW gatherings at all costs. When it comes to holidays, I imagine all the scum shopping at Wal Mart, or the crowds at Best Buy, a small side of me appreciates the WT. Having to eat dinner with family, whats the point? I ate dinner with family for 22 years of my life. There's no lost time to make up when it comes to holiday dinners. Holidays, I can sleep in late as I'm off from work. Screw field service. There's usually some good NFL, or NBA action. However, I hate holiday music, I hate holiday movies, and holiday TV specials. Can't stand all that crap. They show that same stupid movie with that kid getting his tongue stuck on the pole every year. As a Jehovah's Witness, even one who doesn't buy the WT's nonsense, I can avoid all that holiday crap. Only thing that irritates me about this year is that retarded KM School which is on Christmas, and Christmas Eve. Jackasses in Bethel making brilliant decisions.

serein

this is our first xmas and iv got a tree and all the decorations and cant wait to put it all up,my kids thoe arnt as exited as i thought they woud be

but thats my fault as iv taught em all there lifes not to do it,

iv got so many pressys for them aswell,

i just dont no whats the best time to put the tree and all up,

iv also been reading on some sites religiose ones about xmas and iv decided its ok why would god be so petty about celebrating it,plus it says in a scripture i read last night in the old testerment

il have to find were i read it but cant rem right now,

that it dont matter about celebrating festivals or the new moon and stuff like that so to me that means xmas and what ever else when i rem were i read it il post it on,

im still a beleiver in god im just not a beleiver in jws so for me i just feel uncomfortable about doing something wrong if it says in bible not to do it,but it dont say not to do it so i am.

Heaven

this is our first xmas and iv got a tree and all the decorations and cant wait to put it all up,my kids thoe arnt as exited as i thought they woud be

serein ... tell your kids that you discovered something in the Bible that says it's ok and show them the scripture I quoted. Maybe that will help them accept it and enjoy it.

serein

yer thats what i read last night my husband showed me it, i will il show them it,its my big lad wose got the bigest prob with it hes 19 and its real hard for him to change his mind on things hes told me not to talk about it to him,he even said i can be brainwashed all i want but dont brain wash the small kids. he dont live at home now but its gona be hard when he comes round and we got all the stuff up.

AwSnap

I aspire to be like you and your wifey one day, SBC. I've had real trees up in our home in the past, but the hubby still isn't comfortable with them. So I'm putting one up in my office instead. It makes me feel a little melancholy, to be honest.

I can't believe how many people are putting up their trees already...it makes me want to do so as well! But I just keep thinking its too early! Ohhh, decisions decisions

mrsjones5

I love the holidays. I love the family get-togethers. I love the food, the decorations, the presents, and the fun. During my childhood most of that was cut out. Yeah we had turkey but it was the day after Thanksgiving. Everyonce in a while I got an unwrapped present. And sometimes there were family get-togethers during the holidays but it supposedly had nothing to do with that time of the year. Most times we just stayed home. On Christmas day when you've got nothing to do and you can't go anywhere can be quite boring. When I was growing up the holidays was a bleak time indeed.

But I'm free to do it different with my kids. For Halloween I don't buy costumes if I can help it, we try to make our own. Thanksgiving, I do most the cooking but we invite friends over to share and have fun. Christmas, I tend to make a lot of our ornaments for the tree and get the kids involved and we play alot of holiday music (Charlie Brown's Christmas is my fav). I'm trying to get the jump on it this year and decorate like crazy. There's a thrift shop closed by that's already got their Christmas stuff out and I've already bought a couple of things for the house.

Times are tough right now but I think we're going to have a nice Christmas together as a family and that's all that matters...to me.

The Holiday Thread

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