Did your family ever makeup holidays?

MicStroz

This may sound funny, but my family would celebrate every year a " Gift Day". It would be in December but never the week of Christmas. We would get gifts for each other and have a family meal. We would always have a turkey dinner the weekend of Thanks Giving but we would never call it that.....just "Turkey Day". I guess my mother who was behind most of this was trying to have her cake and eat it too. Being a JW and still having some form of celebration in her life. I did Gift Day for the last 12 years as my wife was than still a witness and I wanted the kids to have something to look forward to. She would never give or be willing to receive a gift that day but she put up with it.

Did other JW families makeup holidays or was my family an exception?

Bryan

My ex-inlaws did that. In January they would have a big party and give gifts to the kids. Crazy.

Bryan

Wild_Thing

Yep ... called "Family Day". They started about 6 years ago. It is just Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled into one. Big family meal and exchanging of presents .... its more than I got when I was a kid.

findingme

My family gathered around for gift exchanges in June, my parents' wedding anniversary. The kids received more gifts than my parents did.

desib77

My friend and I did that. Our families didn't so we made up Friendship Day and bought each other gifts. It was always so much fun having something to look forward to.

Desi

BeautifulGarbage

I can remember as a kid, our family, including extended JW relatives, doing a huge gift exchange during the month of June. What stands out is how excited my Mom was shopping for everyone. Of course, I liked it too. We didn't do it after that because of a huge family fallout, which my family not being active JWs being an issue.

When we started celebrating "Xmas" when I was 10, my Dad (who wasn't active but still "believed") made it clear that we weren 't actually celebrating Xmas (we were not allowed to have a tree, we just stacked the presents in the corner) or the birth of Christ. That we just happen to be exchanging gifts on the same day that everyone else celebrated Xmas.

My Dad is the Zen Master of rationalization.

imallgrowedup

My JW mom used to buy me something every December. Even though both my birthday and Christmas are in December, she would always make a point of telling me that it was "just because". She would do the same thing for my grandmother, whose birthday I was born on. I could never figure out why she did this in December if it was "just because".

FWIW - my non-JW dad was (and still is!) a cake-aholic! He would make up birthdays for the stuffed animals and insist either my non-JW mom or I make a cake so we (he) could celebrate. He even made us sing to those damn bears.....

*shakes head*

growedup

Strawberryfieldsforever

Oh yeah.....my Mom called it "present day". It was in December, but never on Christmas day. Sick, huh?

Xena

My family was big on anniversaries, the one thing we COULD celebrate. Since I was so much younger than my sisters and my parents didn't want me rushing into marrage just to get presents (guess they didn't even consider I might do it for sex) they started having an "anniversary for not being married" day for me to get presents on. Lol it was cool.....I didn't have to share my stuff

shotgun

We used to all run around the house on special occasions to avoid being hit during the bi-weekly festival of curse and screamfest...ahhh what memories.

Did your family ever makeup holidays?

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