When you were a jw....Christmas day... (page 3)

Tater-T

and when I wasn't... Christmas day was exactly like any other day... just a day.

Well thank ya mrs. jones. I wasn't offended...

As it happens, I was not a born in so I did know what I was missing once we stopped celebrating.

I do know, trillaz, about things with family sometimes being dreadful. But as a child I did miss out on some innocent, magical fun. I'd rather take the good with the bad than have neither.

I am remembering a thread I started a long time ago on the dubs having a dearth of emotional lows and highs.

Perhaps I'm glamorizing it because of the timing. I was 6 when I stopped celebrating--old enough to begin to really get excited about it, and old enough to realize I was missing something big.

It was 1975 and Dubbie Dearest told me Armageddon was going to come before Christmas so I'd never miss one.

Anyhoo...I don't want to derail the thread.

nugget

We sometimes used to visit calls on Xmas day that we knew were on their own and would appreciate a visit. We didn't talk about the kingdom message but asked after them. It was usually a quiet family day and we hated it when it fell on a meeting night. We went and felt miserable and resented all those who weren't there.

Coffee House Girl

Luckily my mom didn't like going out in service on xmas day (I think we only did it once), so on christmas we went to the movies and ate usually at a chinese buffet....I still do that as an ex JW I really enjoy it! I'm a sucker for traditions I guess.....

brokethechain

I remember we had super fun parties on New Year's for a few consecutive years. Then we got a local needs and that was done.

Jim_TX

I do remember one Christmas... I was probably 21 or 22... was living by myself. I went driving in my car on Christmas Day. It was probably around noon-ish.

You know that Christmas story about '...not a creature was stirring...'? Well, I swear, there was no traffic out that day. I was on one of the main streets near the local shopping mall, too. No one in sight. It was very eerie. I felt like it was one of those movies where I was the last person left on the planet.

Then way off in the distance, I saw another vehicle, driving around, and the trance was broken.

Nowadays, you won't see that, as stores and shops stay open even on Christmas Day.

cobaltcupcake

When I was a kid my father insisted on dragging us out in field service on all of the holidays. I especially hated interrupting families who were in the process of "having their tree." I mean, who wants to answer the door, letting in freezing cold drafts, only to find it's Jehovah's Witnesses shoving magazines in their face? Couldn't we have a little respect for their family time?

As an adult I refused to go out on Christmas. We'd sit at home and watch TV or read.

Amelia Ashton

I loved JW xmasses!

Prior to my indoctrination our family xmases were awful. I do not have a single good or happy memory associated with xmas growing up, in fact quite the reverse.

When I became a witness every year I bought a huge turkey and had all the single people round who did not have any worldly people to visit and we ate, played games and watched films. It was an all day party and I loved it

It was about the only thing I did that I didnt get criticised for doing

When you were a jw....Christmas day...