Can Jehovah’s Witnesses Accept Gifts? Yes: When and What to Give

Yes. Jehovah’s Witnesses give and receive gifts gladly, wedding presents included, and Witness parents surprise their children with gifts through the year. They avoid the occasion: they do not keep birthdays or Christmas. Their study book leaves each Witness to decide by conscience whether to accept a holiday gift; by our reading, a birthday present falls under the same counsel.

Paul met a question like this in Rome, where believers disagreed about holy days. He did not settle it by naming a winner: “One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it” (Romans 14:5–6). The Witnesses would not put Christmas or birthdays in that open ground: their answer on holidays says some celebrations “clearly violate Bible principles,” and only “other holidays” are left to each Witness’s conscience. A Witness friend who will not keep your birthday believes that the refusal itself honours God. If we know what they believe, we can give in a way they can receive with a clear conscience.

Can Jehovah’s Witnesses accept birthday or Christmas gifts?

Some will and some will not, and their own teaching leaves the choice to each person. The Witnesses’ 2015 study book What Can the Bible Teach Us? lists the questions a new Witness may face, among them “What should I do if someone gives me a Christmas gift?” Then it asks outright: “What should you do if someone gives you a gift?” Its answer begins, “The Bible does not give a list of rules, but it does say that we should keep a good conscience.” The book pictures two givers, one who does not know the Witness keeps no holidays and one who says, “I know that you don’t celebrate the holiday, but I still want to give you this.” To both it says the same thing: “In either case, you can decide if you will accept the gift or not. But whatever decision you make, be sure to keep a good conscience.” The book is speaking of holiday gifts. It does not mention birthday presents; we read its counsel as covering them too, but that is our reading, not its words.

So a Witness friend may thank you and take the present, or thank you and hand it back. Either way, the answer is about the day and not about you. The same book suggests what a Witness might say when asked: that they “do enjoy spending time with others and giving gifts” but “just choose not to do so in connection with these holidays.” If you hear something like that, you have heard the truth, kindly put.

A thank-you present or a gift of money between friends on an ordinary day raises no holiday question, and none of the Witness pages we checked sets a rule against either. Payment for their preaching is a different matter, taken up below.

Why don’t Jehovah’s Witnesses celebrate birthdays or Christmas?

They believe both displease God. On birthdays their answer is direct: “Jehovah’s Witnesses do not celebrate birthdays because we believe that such celebrations displease God.” They admit that “the Bible does not explicitly forbid celebrating birthdays,” and give four reasons instead. Birthday customs, they say, grew from superstition and astrology. The early Christians did not keep them. The one remembrance Christians are told to keep marks a death, Jesus’ death, and not a birth. And the only two birthday feasts in the Bible belong to men who did not serve God, and both end badly. “Pharaoh’s birthday” ended with his chief baker hanged (Genesis 40:20–22); at Herod’s, “when Herod’s birthday was kept,” a girl’s dance ended with her asking for John the Baptist’s head “in a charger” (Matthew 14:6–8).

Their reasoning about Christmas is set out in their answer on holidays. “Before deciding whether to celebrate a particular holiday, Jehovah’s Witnesses consult the Bible,” it says, and they keep away from days they judge to break its principles. “Jehovah’s Witnesses do not celebrate Christmas, Easter, or May Day, since these holidays are rooted in the worship of gods other than Jehovah.” The same page lists holidays they avoid because they rest on luck, such as Lunar New Year, or are tied to the occult, such as Halloween. There is more on why Jehovah’s Witnesses do not celebrate Christmas on its own page.

Most other churches keep Christmas, and many Christians give presents at that season in thanks for Christ, the gift Paul could only call “unspeakable” (2 Corinthians 9:15). The Witnesses do not ask others to stop. “Do Jehovah’s Witnesses tell others not to celebrate certain holidays?” their answer asks. “No. They believe that each person must make his own decision.”

When do Jehovah’s Witnesses give gifts?

Any day at all. The Watchtower of 1 December 2012 opened with Jesus’ saying in Acts 20:35 as their Bible gives it, “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving,” and then turned to Luke 6:38. “‘Practice giving,’ said Jesus,” the article says, using the Witnesses’ own translation. “He did not limit gift-giving to a certain time of the year when people would be expected to give. Jesus urged his followers to make spontaneous gift-giving a practice, a way of life.” It adds a word on Paul’s “cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7): being one “rules out the feeling of being obligated to give a specific item to a specific person at a specific time.”

Children feel this most. Witnesses, their birthday answer says, “express love to their children throughout the year, including giving them gifts and having enjoyable gatherings.” A 12-year-old quoted there put it simply: “It’s more fun getting a gift when you’re least expecting it.” The 2015 study book tells parents the same: “You can also surprise them with gifts.”

Weddings are a time when Witnesses give and receive presents openly. “Jehovah’s Witnesses are happy to give and receive wedding gifts,” their answer on weddings says. “However, Witnesses avoid soliciting gifts or publicly announcing the names of the givers.” Anniversaries are left to each couple: “Witness couples decide for themselves whether or not to celebrate their anniversary.” If you are invited to a wedding, see how Jehovah’s Witnesses celebrate weddings; a present is welcome there.

What gifts should you avoid giving a Jehovah’s Witness?

Anything that ties the gift to a practice they avoid. Most ordinary presents, given on an ordinary day, raise no question at all. These are the ones that do.

The last rule comes from the letter the apostles sent to the churches, telling believers to “abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled” (Acts 15:29). The Witnesses’ teaching on medical uses of blood changed in 2026, but their 2026 article states the rule about food plainly, as quoted in the table.

Can you give a Witness a gift for visiting or teaching you?

A small present or a cup of coffee, offered as a friend, is hospitality, and nothing we found forbids it. Money for the preaching itself is another matter, because payment goes against what they believe. “No, we are not paid for our Christian activities,” their answer says. “We use our own time, money, and resources to preach to others and to conduct Bible studies.” They quote Jesus’ words to the twelve, which the King James Version gives as “freely ye have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8). A Witness who has studied the Bible with you for months may well say no to money for it, and mean it kindly. They do accept donations for their work, which they say support “our religious and humanitarian activities.” There is more on whether Jehovah’s Witnesses receive payment for ministry.

How to give a Witness friend a gift

Choose a day that belongs to no holiday. Write a card that says what you mean, that you saw this and thought of them, with no greeting tied to a season. Skip the charms and the zodiac, the cross and the blood sausage. If your friend still says no, let it rest, and let the conversation stay warm. The Witnesses’ own study book points its readers to Paul’s counsel for answering holiday greetings, and it serves us as well: “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man” (Colossians 4:6).

When Witnesses step back from a family celebration, their answer on holidays says, many “take the initiative to reassure their relatives of their love” and “visit their relatives on other occasions.” We can meet them on those other occasions. A gift given on a grey Tuesday in March, for no reason but friendship, may say more than anything wrapped in December. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17).

Related reading

• Is it a sin to celebrate Christmas? No, most churches say
• Why do Jehovah’s Witnesses avoid Halloween?
• Why don’t Jehovah’s Witnesses celebrate Thanksgiving?
• Do Jehovah’s Witnesses celebrate New Year’s?
• Why do Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse blood transfusions?