I want to begin with saying that I know that Mark Driscoll just posted a blog talking about what he teaches his kids about Santa, but I have not read it. I really wanted to, but I have been preparing this post all week and didn't want to be influenced/impacted by what he has said. Also to say that these opinions are my own and I have not gotten anything from any other source.
Okay, now that the disclaimer is out of the way, I wanted to write about what my family does during the Christmas season. I have realized that what we Cloers do at Christmas is pretty different from what a great number of people do. First off, let me hit Santa. Oops, let me put that another way. I will discuss what we do/teach about Santa. We do not do anything with Santa Claus. We don't take our boys to see a Santa at the mall. They don't write letters to Santa nor do they leave cookies out for him. If we are ever going to tell them anything about Santa it will be about the historical person that his mythology is based on. But, I'm sure that they won't care at all about that nor will they commit those facts to memory. We don't do Santa for one simple reason: WE HAVE JESUS! That's it. TheLord Jesus' coming to Earth for the rescue of sinful humanity is a big enough and special enough reason for celebration. Some people ask, "Don't you feel like you are taking something away from your children by not letting them believe in Santa?" Or they say, "We do Santa with our kids because it just adds to the magic of Christmas for them." Really? My response to that is: WE HAVE JESUS! I could go on and on about this, but it really is that simple to me. We have the greatest thing in all of the history of the universe to celebrate in the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. And to say that adding a mythological story about an overweight, elderly man that rides in a sleigh that is powered by flying reindeer to deliver presents to the children of the world by slipping down chimneys will make that glorious celebration "more special" or "magical" is totally absurd. So, I have been trying to teach Michael some things to say when he is asked, "What's Santa gonna bring you?" First response, "There is no Santa." Second response, "He sits on a throne of lies."
Seriously though, on Christmas morning, when our children are opening up presents (more on that in a bit) we want them to know that those were given to them by their parents who love them very much. And we love them even if they have been bad and they don't have to be good for goodness sake in order for them to experience love from their parents. So, no Santa, all Jesus.
Christmas day has always been special in my family. Here is what a Christmas day looks like in the Michael Cloer (my father) family. Wake up to smell of deer tenderloin being fried up. It is a wonderful smell. My parents get up early, I have never really known how early, to start making us breakfast. Breakfast will consist of the aforementioned deer tenderloin, scrambled eggs, biscuits, sawmill gravy, grits and my mothers fruit salad with miniature marshmallows and shredded coconut (so good). There is always Christmas blend coffee that is brewing all morning, cold milk and my mother's Christmas fruit cocktail drink/punch (non alcoholic, of course). When everything is ready, we sit down at large table together, everyone wearing their pajamas and such, Dad prays and we enjoy a great meal. A great thing is that the size of our family has grown numerically over the past decade. This Christmas there will be 11 of us around that table.
After breakfast, we excuse Mom and Dad to go and take showers and get themselves ready while we do the dishes and clean up. Then later in the morning, around 11 we all sit down together again, but this time it is in the den/family room where the Christmas tree is (that is a picture of it up there). Then Dad begins us in a time of prayer. Each one of us then prays and thanks the Lord for the blessing of the past year. It is usually a pretty emotional time. After that, Mom leads in some songs and we usually crack up at least once because it is either to high or too low for some of us. Then we refill our drinks with more coffee or more of the Christmas cocktail and maybe grab a quick bite of some goodie from in the kitchen and then settle back in for the giving of presents. That's right, it can be after noon sometimes before we start doing anything with presents. It has been that way my whole life. And sure when I was younger I might have been annoyed or irritated by that, but it taught much such a valuable lesson. It has taught me that there is so, so much more to the celebration of that day than getting presents. And that is what we want to teach our children too. We want them to know that this is a very special day because we get to be together and love on each other and celebrate Jesus and worship Him. We get to give to one another.
And we will not be showering our children with literally tons of gifts. I think that we can all agree that there is a tremendous amount of excess that American children experience all the time and especially at Christmas. It is not the aim of Melissa or myself to raise our children to be greedy, selfish or ungrateful. We want them to be generous, giving and compassionate. We want to give to people, families, in need. We want to give money toward global missions. We want to serve people in our community and love our neighbors. We want to celebrate Christmas in deed and not just in word. Our children will receive a few presents each year and they will give many gifts each year as well.
Christmas day usually ends with a ride around town to look at Christmas lights while drinking hot chocolate and some of Dad's homemade peanut butter cookies. I love my family. I love being a member in my family. I am not in any way saying that what other families do is wrong or sinful or anything like that. We Cloers are not better than anyone. But we are different. I love and embrace that difference. I truly am thankful to be a son of Michael and Tebra Cloer and I want my children to feel the same way about Melissa and me. Merry Christmas.
