I believe in some cases the “children” feel very left out. Adults make their own choices but children depend on parents. Parents on the other hand have the right to bring up a child the way they feel is best for their child. Schools and community have many celebrations that children aren’t allowed to take part in with friends. Many events in school such as Valentine's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Birthdays, Thanksgiving, Halloween and Christmas bring attention to the accepted holidays. A child needs to feel accepted in his/her peer group and be a part of activities, which don't involve drugs, alcohol or gangs. It teaches them responsibility and they learn from everyone around them. Separating a child out draws more attention to the fact that the child is different. Being different is fine for an adult for not for little children. Every child needs to feel that he/she is accepted and any child development worker would say the same. The gift giving is not the issue because in fact many celebrate Christmas for it's true meaning rather than giving into the greed that we see in shopping malls every December. All the hype is media driven for dollars and has nothing to do with the true meaning of Christmas. When I was a child Easter eggs "symbolised" the rolling away of the stone at Jesus tomb. Much more meaning than the Easter bunny brings, yet for a child the Easter bunny doesn’t bring harm. True meanings can be given to any child without separating them from community and friends. Almost all holidays mentioned encourage the child to learn about giving and that’s a good thing. It teaches them that the pleasure of giving is much more than the getting. I am not saying that all traditional celebrations are right for everyone but they are an enjoyable meaningful part of a child’s life. School and community as well as home environment is important for early child development. Every child wants and needs to feel included. It's crucial to healthy balanced development. They can be as different as they wish in adult life but in my “opinion” early life has to be secure, happy and consistent for them. The meanings have to be explained so that they learn about greed and an examples have to be set for them. To deny them life's little pleasures and separate them from school friends/peer group/community could be a harmful factor in over-all development.

Yes, young children can certainly feel left out when they belong to a minority group that does not observe the celebrations that the majority in their community observe. This can be difficult in schools, where such festivities may observed with communal activities by teachers and the student body or where they are embedded in the curriculum. This isolation affects the children of the Jehovah's Witnesses, but it also affects innumerable others, both religious and non-religious. Some individuals refuse to take part in any of the Christian celebrations, because they do not follow the Christian faith or they are repelled by the crass commercialism attending some celebrations. Some Orthodox sects observe celebrations using their own calendar, with festivals falling on different days than are commonly followed in western society. Conservative and Orthodox Judaism have their own traditions and celebrations, while followers of Reform Judaism sometimes observe a gift exchange at Christmas so their young children do not feel left out. Muslims, Hindus, and members of dozens of other religious follow their own traditions and celebrations. Children whose families celebrate religious or social festivals that none of their fellow students have ever heard of can also feel isolated. A child celebrating Diwali may feel uncomfortable, if he or she is the only person observing the tradition at school or among friends. However, some schools help minority children by teaching students about different cultures and religions. This is a very positive process. Non-religious celebrations may fall on different days in different countries and may even have different meanings. Children see this via the media and can be confused by it or feel left out. For example, Thanksgiving in both the US and Canada originally evolved from traditional autumn harvest celebrations, the US version has elements celbrated nowhere else. Thanksgiving in these two countries are celebrated a month apart (autumn arriving that much earlier in much of Canada).

Christmas is NOT celebrated. J.W's regard the celebrations of December 25 as having pagan connotations. In fact, Jesus' birthday in any form is not celebrated simply because Jesus himself never mentioned it. But Jesus DID ask us to remember his death. J.W's do this every year on the day equivalent to the Hebrew date NISAN 14, in a very simple ritual called The Memorial Celebration. This year it will be Wednesday April 12th. after sundown. Jesus' birthday has been calculated based on his three and a half years of preaching. Irrespective of the actual year, 3 1/2 years before the month of his death [ March/April] results in September/October. Not Decewmber 25. He was 'about 30' when he began his preaching.

No. We are glad that we do not celebrate them.

I was born one of Jehovah's Witness's and I am 26 now. Let me tell I felt left out and felt nobody liked me because I was different. I even some times took part in some of the activities because i felt bad. Let me tell you this though. When I was 19 I moved out and never went to meetings or assembles for about 4 years. During that time I went and I lived with friends that did just about everything from drugs and alchohol and many other things. I also studied other religions, I asked myself, is what I was taught what the truth or just what my parents told me to belive. I had friends that were morman that talked to me. I looked into babtist, catholic and most christian religions. Non of the religions actually followed what the bible said. I learned from studing the bible by myself for myself with no influence, Jehovah's Witness's follow the bible and adhear to the scriptures. So in answer to the question, Yes i felt very left out. Now knowing that I did not celebrate these holiday's for a reason, I feel proud. I would rather not celebrate something for a valid reason than to celebrate some in ignorance and find out it was wrong in the future. I now study the bible almost every day and study with others.

I believe that this is up to the individual. I never celebrated birthdays, holidays and such and personally, it never bothered me. I march to the beat of a totally different drummer than most people and knowing that these celebrations that I avoided are either dishonoring to Jehovah or from pagan origins, it made me feel better to know that I was doing the right thing. It's never easy to be different but all the ridicule, teasing and such only served to make me a stronger individual and mold my character. Most of what was perpetuated against me was done out of fear and ignorance. I don't hold any malice toward those that taunted me. To this day, I have no desire to mingle with people at these so called celebrations of Christ's birth that are nothing excuses to indulge in excess and be materialistic. The one thing that we do celebrate or observe is the sacrificial death of Jesus. We are commanded in the scriptures to remember it. Most people do it on a daily basis but it should be an annual observance.

I think some of them feel left out, but my mother usually just hated Christmas and the music etc., couldn't wait for it to be over. Also, if you never celebrated the holidays, it just never has the same meaning as it does to the people who do.

Sure, why not? When I see people having a good time I sometimes wish I was having a good time too. We're all human and have the same emotions. Why wouldn't Jehovah's Witnesses ever feel left out, especially when they're younger and don't fully understand the scope of their non-participation. I think it's natural and it is seen everywhere. We shouldn't feel bad or pity for them. It happens. I would like to point out that this may usually only be a problem in areas where the majority of people come from a 'Christian' background. Where I live now, the cultural diversity is so prominent that these issues are rarely thought of. Children at my son's school are Hindu, Islamic, Muslim, Jewish etc... as well as Christian. Their activities do not revolve around the holidays but revolve around the seasons. Instead of christmas, easter, or halloween projects they do Spring, Fall and Winter projects. If we want to, it can be easy to do something different so our friends and neighbours don't feel left out.

I was raised in the Orthodox Christian church, attending the Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian and United Church, as well as having a non-profit Christian book store run out of my bedroom, and for 32 years celebrated Christmas with my friends and family. Even as a baptized member of the Christian Church I found myself, and many of my friends and family also, growing increasingly frustrated with the commercialization of the holidays. In fact I remember telling many of my friends that my favourite Christmas was when my family was having a difficult time financially, and the focus of the celebration was definitely not on gift giving, but on family unity, worship of God, and thanks for the ransom sacrifice provided in His only begotten son, Jesus Christ. This feeling grew even more as I became an adult, and found myself getting very anxious about what I could get for my loved ones... when I was in financial troubles as my family had been earlier, it was a large burden to try to come up with the compulsory gift..and another time I got a glimpse of the real spirit of the season when I gave some children a gift a few days before Christmas. They were disappointed, and said mean and hurtful things because they expected something more. But the gift had been something just the day before they had used and found great enjoyment from it. On any other day they would be glad to get a gift...but in the expectation of greater gifts because of the time of year they were ingratious and unthankful. Is this the meaning of Christmas? Is this the way the average person thinks? It is certainly becoming more so, even a news station last year commented on that fact, and the television networks typically make a lot of money through advertizing this time of year, so it has to be a dire situation indeed for them to stab themselves in the foot like that. Recently, however, I started attending meetings with the Jehovahs Witnesses and learned a few things about Christams and other holidays. As a result I stopped celebrating those holidays, even though I am not yet a baptized member. Now I do not get stressed out over holidays, uneccesarily burdening myself to get extravagant gifts that are likely unappreciated. I don't worry about traveling long distances, spending money I can ill afford during a season when I typically can't work much, because of weather conditions. I don't miss work at opportune times, when the weather is good, because of celebrations. I am free to give gifts when I want, to whom I want. And the best part, they know it is not given by compulsion, and they also know nothing is expected in return, and they truly appreciate the gifts because they are unexpected. Do I miss it? No, I can't wait for it to be over so I can stop hearing about it on every channel, so my regular programming is back on the air and I can get back to work, because all my coworkers are gone for the holidays. I can be with my family every day of the year, and very well should be, and not just on a special day of the year out of compulsion, but at opportune times and out of genuine interest in being with them. The same is true of worship for God. Does He want us to only come to Him on this one day of the year and give thanks for the things He provides for us? He gives us life every day of the year, air and food, water and all the materials and energy of the universe, and not just for Godly people, like Santa, Jehovah also gives these things to the wicked ones, as well as the righteous, and gives them equal opportunity to achieve repentance and salvation.

It's hard for the kids in mainstream education, as they can't participate in many school actvities, especially in a church school. The witnesses I studied with encouraged an 'everyday's a happy day' approach. (And bought all the half price easter egs!)

My dd's best friend was raised JW. she refused to attend services and stopped considering herself JW at age 14, in a large part because of feeling left out and disagreeing with the reasoning behind the non-participation. Her parents have chosen to celebrate her younger sisters bday, and xmas, easter, etc (she is 18, her sister is 7)

As an elementary school teacher I find that celebrating birthdays and holidays are very difficult. Many of the parents of my Jehovah's Witness students request that the students be removed from the classroom during these times. The children often get upset and when they return ask what was missed. As a teacher I felt that the children were being left out. After a few years of experience, I realized that if we focused on the celebration of the seasons and not the holidays that the Jehovah's Witness children could participate in these types of celebrations and were no longer left out of the classroom activities. Now all of my students are always allowed to take part in seasonal events and no one is left out. If anyone has any other suggestions for including all children I would love to hear them!

My friend is a Witness and she said at holidays they would just leave school early and go home when the parties started. She never said that she felt left out at all. I would think that if you are a Witness the reward of not following man and following God would be a greater gift than getting something that you can hold in your hands.......you know the bigger picture...