Christmas - love it or leave it? (page 5)

Xanthippe

The stockings are handmade because I couldn't go out and buy decorations the first year as we didn't have the money - Nugget

I still don't go to the mall or go nuts, but their are parts of it that can be fun, you just have to be balanced, like anything else in life - LisaRose

I REALLY want to decorate my yard to the hilt! I want a huge tree not only to see how beautiful I can make it but for the sheer experience I have missed by being a born in -3rdgen

for us it's a totally secular event. We have a tree that's visible through the living room windows, and we put a wreath and lights up outside. I know without a doubt that the local dubs have seen it, and I don't care one bit. They haven't bothered to confront us, which saves me the effort of telling them to sod off - Finally Awake

Wonderful. People doing Christmas and LIFE the way they want to do it! Hooray

LOVE IT - my 7 year old is so psyched it is great. The missus is making objections to the family lunch I have arranged but I have accomodated or overridden them. I feel so sorry that she has been robbed throughout her life of the fun of Xmas and will do what I can to help her to enjoy it without guilt - she would enjoy it a hell of a lot more if she could just overcome the conditioning in her head..

notjustyet

I agree with Witness My Furry, I want to have nothing what so ever to do with a holiday having anything to do with religion.

I want to what ever I can to make sure that my children and up theirs, and so on and so on, will be able to keep their minds free from these religiously related traditions.

I'm like, dude, we just got out of a very difficult situation with leaving a cult, and you guys want to jump right back into something else, albeit not as dangerous as a high controls group, that is religiously based? Religion, the thing that makes you feel inadequate and teaches you need a redeemer and are sinfull and need to come to them to be cleansed. Come on, why jeopardize the minds of your kids like this.

Of course I am going to a Winter Solstice party later in the week but that's different.

NJY

Quarterback

Love the lights.

Love the food, the chocolate, watching the Griswalds, the days off work, families geting togeather, sleeping in.

But, don't celebrate it.

Frazzled UBM

notjustyet - you think you are doing your kids a favour by not celebarating Xmas - you think you are jeopardizing their minds - really? Have you asked them whether they would like to celebrate Xmas? You can make it a family day where you show appreciation of each other by giving gifts (not going over the top) -the religious content is what you want to make it. Go on - give it a go for your kids' sake...I feel pity for my wife that she was robbed of the opportunity to experience the joy of Xmas as a kid and continues to resist, because of WBTS indoctrination - you no longer have that excuse...

notjustyet

We are doing a Family day where the kids are getting gifts from the parents etc, just not associated with Xmas. I just see celebrating Xmas as a slippery slope, as it were, where slowly their, our, minds kinds start creeping toward celebrating things with out really looking into what started this whole thing.

I understand that it's fun for the kids, but at what cost? Kids will eat candy all day if you let them, but that does not make their desire to celebrate Xmas a good thing just because it feels good.

I just feel that we have mentally been through a lot getting out of this cult and I feel that celebrating anything like this that is based on religion is like throwing in the towel "cause it feels good" I feel people are sometimes like moths that see a bright pretty light and decide to fly to it no matter the cost.

Trying to get my children to try to think above the sheeple that are just going with the herd toward this celebration, just because a lot of people do it and it is fun does not mean that they are not giving up something for this fun time. I somehow feel that i'm a little bit clearer in my thinking for being able to withstand the onslought of just celebrating Xmas. I don't want that to sound belittling but in a way I mentally feel that I'm at a higher level being able to not fall for the bright lights glitz and glamour. Staying away from the merchandising and marketing and seeing what it is all about financially is freeing in a sense.

The only way that I would think that it was okay to do this is if it helped the kids get further away from the cult thinking. But then I think, at what cost, jumping out of one mental trap for another. I can see that a group of people wanting to do this if all their extended family were never Jws and it's a family tradition already. For us, we have never done this and starting a tradition just because seems childish in a way.

NJY

Frazzled UBM

NJY - I understand your point. There is a lot of crass commercialism around Xmas and the retailers play this very hard in their advertising ande make a lot of money from it and many families end up in debt because of a sense of oblkigation to give more gifts than they can afford - I get all this. And as an Atheist who understands that it is a holiday based on the Winter Solstice that was adopted by Christianity I don't see it as having great religious significance. But as a Winter Solstice celebration that focuses on the family it is special. IMO the reason the WBTS is against it is to both isolate Witnesses and give them a sense of superiority. You have a clean slate so you can design your family Xmas celebration from scratch - take what you like and leave the rest as you seem to be doing - and it will help your kids in relating to other kids to join in the Xmas spirit. Cheers and Merry Xmas

rocketman

Christmas is my least favorite holiday. It's a holiday hijacked by retailers.

notjustyet

Frazzeled UBM said " You have a clean slate so you can design your family Xmas celebration from scratch - take what you like and leave the rest as you seem to be doing - and it will help your kids in relating to other kids to join in the Xmas spirit. Cheers and Merry Xmas"

You just had to get that little dig in at the end didn't you? lol

Honestly, for me, I think it is because it has something to do with supposed christianity and you remember the old "Knee bone connected to the leg bone, leg bone connected to the hip bone" jingle, right? I want to be as far from "religion" as possible. I don't even want my kids minds remotely connected to ANY religious holiday due to the mindset that "it's alright to do just this one holiday,.. then just a little bit more and before you know it, they are buying their women some new clothes around easter time."

Slippery slope alert, slippery slope alert!

I opt to have a mind that is as far from that mind numbing celebrations as possible. Kids smiling happy to get gifts, I can do that, kids being allowed to touch and warm up to sugar coated religious celebrations is not what I had in mind when I worked so hard for the last few years getting them clear of one controlling group to see them fall head over heals into another one due to " it being the normal thing to do"

I just don't get sacrificing mental clarity ( I need all I can get lol) for some made up on ramp to religious indoctrination.

Harriet Tubman said "I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves."

I think that it is in a way, being enslaved to something that is not beneficial other than prettiness and gifts is not enough of a trade off for me to open their minds to this celebration that is tied in one way or another to religion. Trying to teach my children not to be "sheeple" and to not tie themselves to something just because everyone else is doing it. I try to teach my kids to be smarter than that and take a look at all it encompasses good and bad before deciding to move forward. Want them to make an informed decision on all things that could mentally be captivating. Moth to the light scenario.

If you dance around enough fires, as pretty as they are, you are likely to fall into one sooner or later.

Not trying to make myself into a martyr here but feel like those that just follow these traditions are not fully thinking it out. I would hate to hear that my childrens children were duped into a cult years from now due to me not being able to inoculate them from religious dogma.

NJY

Xanthippe

Thanks for your thoughts. Notjustyet you obviously have strong feelings about it. May I ask do you allow your children to join in the Christmas parties at school? Just wondering, thanks.

Christmas - love it or leave it?

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