How did you feel when you started celebrating Christmas again? Did you suddenly feel 5 all over again? If you had never celebrated Christmas like me, did you find yourself realizing what they mean when they say "the Christmas spirit"? I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!
2007-12-14 02:20:43 · 13 answers · asked by Elphaba 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
unscilenced...I know what you mean. My husband and I both were raised JW and the first year we celebrated we waited until 11pm to go to WalMart to get a tree. We were scared to death someone would see us!lol We had members of the congregation reporting to our families about us having a tree up (they could see it through the window). Too funny!
2007-12-14 02:58:57 · update #1
Because I was brought up from birth into a JW family, I never celebrated Christmas. For me, it wasn't a case of starting to celebrate Christmas again. I'd never done it.
Christmas presses all the wrong buttons for me. Mainly because I know Jesus was not born on 25 December and there is so much commercialism about the 'holiday' it makes me want to throw up. However, I do know this. Irrespective of the day Jesus was born, the angels celebrated. So should we.
But perhaps there is a reason why we do not know the date. Perhaps it is more important to celebrate/ remember his death? We know for a certainty that he died at Passover - and that is marked by the full moon in March/April of each year. Jesus himself told us to remember the event. He did not tell us to remember his birth.
As far as "the Christmas spirit" goes, I'm more concerned with the Holy Spirit and how the life and death of Jesus changes us for good. Morning and evening we should give thanks for the birth of Jesus - not just on one day of the year, singled out by Constantine for political and religious reasons. Peace and goodwill to all men should be the hallmark of every Christian 24/7. Not just on one day of the year.
Sorry if I've burdened anyone with my hang-ups, but I have never found Christmas "fun". For me it is the most stressful day of the year - it reminds me of my past and how different I was made to feel as a child. My only consolation is that I am now a Christian, and I celebrate the birth of my Lord and my Saviour every morning and every evening.
2007-12-14 06:41:47 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
I did some research on the holiday and decided to celebrate in the germanic and scandinavian fashion, where it's largely a seasonal celebration. We have a tree and family gathers (even my not so JW mother), and it's mostly a time to honor our love for one another, to enjoy the season and to honor our Lord.
I wish you a very merry Christmas, too, ngj.
edit: speaking of reporting one another.. my JW sis in law was "reported" one year for having a Christmas tree. It turned out she'd decorated a ficus tree with white lights to be trendy, not for a christmas tree.
2007-12-14 02:51:43 · answer #2 · answered by PediC 5 · 5⤊ 0⤋
Wish he had a computer. It is so funny when he tells it.
Anyway he went to one of the local hardware superstores and was looking over trees, ornaments, and so forth...
A gal that had been in grade school with him stopped and stared wondering why he was in the Christmas section.
Kinda makes me wonder if people still think ex's are still JW.
2007-12-14 16:57:40 · answer #3 · answered by troll to troll 7 · 5⤊ 0⤋
I was so scared at first....When I left the Witnesses, I was still so indoctrinated...I felt that Jehovah was going to Kill me anyway, so why not go down having fun. This is the feeling for a lot of people.....
It took me 18 years to deprogram, and I am still doing some of it.
Today I enjoy Christmas, and it is wonderful time with my children and family. I am trying to move away from the material Holiday, and make it more like a wonderful day to appreciate our Lord....as it should be.
May God bless you and have a very MerryChristmas....U.L.
2007-12-14 02:37:43 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 7⤊ 0⤋
Well my Mum goes to witness meetings and things and to be honest i have been with her a few times
But let me tell you Christmas, New Year and Birthdays is a
wonder full thing to celebrate and i dont see anything wrong
in it. If all of that was bad, what would there be to do in this world
2007-12-14 02:56:30 · answer #5 · answered by Yvette E 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
i'm so delighted you asked former Jehovah's Witnesses to respond to this question. in any different case, how would desire to you ever discover out why they left? There are some interesting solutions out of your religious brothers and sisters - yet no longer one in all them has arise with the apparent. at a similar time as i replaced right into a Jehovah's Witness, I additionally theory I had the authentic faith and there replaced into no way i replaced into ever going to depart it. that would desire to be extremely stupid, does no longer it, to depart what you believed to be authentic that gave you peace of concepts. Neither did I depart because of the fact i replaced into immoral or somebody stumbled me or I in simple terms did no longer elect to stay as much as the Bible's intense standards. I wasn't blending with worldly human beings, i did no longer soak up smoking or eating. in certainty, i replaced into pioneering and that i replaced into married to a pioneer. So why did I depart? you are able to desire to appreciate that my moms and dads became Witnesses in the 1930's, and that i knew no longer something different than what Jehovah's Witnesses believed. We have been all waiting for the top of 6,000 years of guy's lifestyles to end in the autumn of 1975 (i will grant the Watchtower quotations in case you doubt me) and that meant Armageddon could come quickly after. My moms and dads believed they have been the technology that would desire to confirm the fulfilment of the top-time prophecies in Matthew 24 and that they could be alive while the Millennial reign of Christ all started. None individuals made any of this up. all of us believed what the Society instructed us. wager what? This prophecy replaced into fake - we are nonetheless waiting, 33 years later. because of the fact of this I left - fake prophecies approximately dates and predictions while 6,000 years of human lifestyles will end. Any peace of concepts I had replaced into shattered once I realised the quantity to which I have been misinform. i'm now a born-lower back Christian with a heavenly desire and that i compliment God that, in the process the Holy Spirit, he delivered me to a place of repentance and forgiveness. faith would not save. basically Jesus Christ can try this.
2016-10-11 06:43:47 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes! I spent a couple hours hanging lights in my apartment - and I had a blast!
Merry Christmas to you as well!
2007-12-14 02:25:56 · answer #7 · answered by Nea 5 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Tears of joy for all you ex-jw's! Merry Christmas to you all!
2007-12-14 04:09:30 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
Good for you. It feels wonderful to be free to choose. I have never been a JW but I am happy you are "out" from that religion.
2007-12-16 07:50:36 · answer #9 · answered by Nina, BaC 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
I celebrate because my new wife does. I really don't care one way or the other.
If I was not married to her. I would not celebrate. Not because I think it's pagan, but because I never have so I just don't care.
2007-12-14 02:32:42 · answer #10 · answered by isnrblogdotcalm 5 · 4⤊ 0⤋