We were denied christmas all our lives apart from the odd year my parents ducked out of the JW's when smoking or working illegally etc, then on all the children becoming adults, my parents divorced and left the JW's, they both remarried and enjoy christmas with their new families, leaving my siblings behind in the witnesses.
I could never have done that to my (yet unborn, if ever) children..... And birthdays etc. how cold. I hate it when I hear JW's say 'how can they afford christmas it must stress them out all year' etc etc ....what cold heearted, unloving people. Maybe a job, an education and some hard work would pay for your children to have an amazing season of family fun and receiving gifts, if not ...do what you can. At least put some half arsed effort into researching your beliefs before denying them a childhood....
I remember our one 'present day' one November. We had never had one so we keenly awaited it, I was 14. My parents took us to a large city (Liverpool)nearby, I had told all my friends at school who had long mocked us for our lack of 'toys' and belongings, my folks said they were going to give us money to spend in the city. When we got there they gave us £10. We spent all day trying to decide how to spend it.... My brother bought some chesp jeans, I bought a board game from a market. I have never felt so dissapointed as when I lied to my friends the next day about what we had been bought.
A month later, i think racked with guilt, my dad agreed to buy us a nintendo games console, a Super NES. So i saved up and bought a controller as one didn't come witn it and had it ready in anticipation. The console came from the catalogue company and on its arrival we were sat down and told we couldnt keep it. It sat in our home's hall way in a box, i remember that box and silver packaging now. it went back and i was left with a controller. That really annoyed me and hurt me, to put it into perspective we had a speed boat in the garage! A local elder spoke to me that year about my parents finances and how they felt we were being neglected i.e. clothing etc and that they saw our psrents spending money elsewhere. I as any kid would, defended them and said all was well. But yeah, what a crap christmas..... One of my worst as a teen.
As for the SNES, that really took the buscuit. I went and ordered a playstation from my friends mums catalogue and paid it off through gardening for an old JW in tne hall.
But yeah, I remember going on the ministry as a JW kid on christmas day, we worked the more affluent area of my town. .it actually pains me to just remember how hard I found that cold morning, working with my group overseer on a crisp cold dsy with a bright blue sky, knkwing how much we were missing out.
"Our kids don't ever go without and to them it is,just another day!"
What utter lies.
if any of you have kids or grandkids , trust me send them gifts in abundance near christmas, within your means, even if the JW parents give them before or after.