You're a mean one, Mr. Claus

So,  we made it past the twelve days of Christmas and into the season of Epiphany. . Don't want to ruin anyone's Christmas by complaining about Santa Clause,  so waiting until now to post this.

On one hand, I'm not really anti-Santa. His image can be found in my home at certain points in the year, I've been known to sing songs about him from time to time,  and I enjoy the Tim Allen movies. Part of me thinks it's all just harmless fun. Some Christians struggle with Christmas being split or shared between Christ and secular festivities like Santa Claus. Even this does not bother name all that much.

So, what is it I don't like about Santa Claus? Well, that all goes back to what we give presents for in the first place. Christmas gifts are given as a commemoration of the ultimate gift given to us on the first Christmas; Jesus becoming fully God and fully Man to bear or sins to the cross. Most may not think of it that way anymore, but that is why we do it.

The first Christmas gift was not given to mankind because we deserve it,  earned it, or even asked for it. God have the gift out of love for his children, undeserved love. Likewise, when we give gifts at Christmas, especially to our children, we do it for the same reasons. This is not what the story of Santa Claus teaches or children. In order to get something from Santa, you have to ask for it and you have to be good. The gifts must be earned (at least in theory).

Yet, if these gifts symbolize the gift of Christ and salvation it self, then what does the story of Santa Claus teach about that gift? Obviously it teaches that salvation must be earned by being good. It promotes legalism, and that is unacceptable. Children of the age to believe in Santa are constantly absorbing and processing ideas and concepts, it's not the time to be confusing ideas.

You could still do Santa Claus and ignore the real purpose of these gifts at Christmas time, but you will be missing a fantastic teaching opportunity by doing so.  If is very easy to use Santa and Christmas to try to get better behavior out of our children, but it does them a disservice and it does a disservice to the Gospel. How much better is it to show children undeserved love when they misbehave and give them the gift from loving parents in spite of their behavior instead of encouraging them to earn it from a magical power?

Christmas is about Christ. I'm OK with some secular celebrations, but when those secular things can undermine the meaning of Christmas, it becomes a harder pill to swallow, and one that gets harder every year.

To Stream or Not To Stream

I was reading one of those click bait lists today, 10 Things Not To Buy In 2015.  Nothing too surprising on the list, and one thing I definitely expected to see on the list was DVDs and CDs.  It was there of course.  I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I am a cord cutter.  I have given up on cable/satellite TV and get my visual entertainment via Netflix, Hulu, and OTA broadcasts.  Most of the time, it is enough for me and my family.  We occasionally miss some sports, but overall streaming is far superior to pay TV.  On the other hand, Streaming music is not something I've been able to get behind.

So, why the difference?  First of all, movies/TV are consumed quite differently from music for most people.  Movies and TV are typically consumed in one's home, and frequently are not watched multiple times, Yes, we have our favorites that we may watch over and over, but it is not uncommon to watch a film or TV show once and never watch it again.  Music is a bit different, we favorite artists, favorite songs, favorite albums.  Music has for decades been thought of as a collection, movies and TV shows now so much.   This lends streaming to be better suited to visual media, as opposed to music.  Being consumed at home with wifi, and frequently as a one time deal makes this media better suited for streaming.

Music streaming presents more problems.

1. Music is frequently consumed outside of the home where unlimited Wifi is not present.  We listen in the car, at the park, at work, at the gym, and anywhere else.  Unless you are lucky enough to have unlimited data on your smartphone, streaming music can  quickly eat into your data limit.  My listening habits at work alone, would come out to over 2.5 gigabytes a month, I only get three and already use close to two on other data.  I can't realistically stream music using my data plan.  Without some resolution in Net Neutrality and some competition among ISPs, home bandwidth may be limited in the future as well.

2. Streamed music frequently sounds awful.  It is compressed to save on bandwidth, and the audio hardware in most smart phones is quite poor.  Using a media player or laptop and local files gives you much more control.  Media players are not always the best sounding in the world, but are almost always better than smartphones.  Files and quality can be controlled at a very granular level if you rip from CDs yourself.  Many players of local files can offer gapless playback as well, which is important for some albums and classical works.

3.  With streaming you are usually completely dependent on external parties for access to what you want.  You are dependent on the network provider for access to the service, and are dependent on the service to have the music you want.  If your network is out, no music for you.  If your favorite artist decides not to allow their music to be streamed anymore (Taylor Swift for a high profile example, not my favorite artist), then you are out of luck.

4. Your phone is important for other things.  Draining the battery on streaming music may leave you without your phone for that important phone call, or tweet.  Alternatively, a long unexpected phone call may rob you of your music for the rest of the day.  Having an independent device lets you keep your phone dedicated to other activity.

Of course there are cons too.  Need to carry an extra device, cost may be a bit higher for your collection, as opposed to monthly streaming fees, but that depends on what you buy.  The second hand market can give you very competitive prices on disks.  There is certainly a more significant time cost involved.  These costs seem small to me in exchange for the quality increases and the control over the experience.  Streaming still has a place, its great for discovering new music, at home if you can play it through a decent system it can sound good and be more convenient than swapping discs in and out.  But for those of us who are serious about music, and listen frequently in many places, streaming is just not practical yet.