A Christmas Eve church service is an important holiday tradition for many people. It’s a time to come together with friends and family to celebrate and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. The Christmas Eve service often includes carols, Scripture readings, and a message.
While this is a celebratory and important event for many people, it’s not possible without extensive preparation and planning by church staff. Keep reading for tips on how to make the most out of your Christmas services. Plus, see how your regular attendees and influx of new visitors will feel more connected if you take the right steps to prepare.
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Plan in Advance
Christmas and other holiday services and events should be planned months in advance. This may include choosing music, readings, and other elements of the service. You'll also want to understand how you can best market your holiday services (and the broadcasts of them) to your community. By planning ahead, you ensure that the service is well-organized, flows smoothly, and that you have the capacity for increased attendees and volunteers to support them.
Prepare for Increased Attendance
The holidays are a time when many people who do not regularly attend church will come to services. Be prepared to accommodate these additional attendees — you need every opportunity to reach as many people as you can. Your church may need to increase the number of services typically offered in a typical week.
Get your physical space ready — in addition to more services, ensure you have adequate seating available for more guests. This includes adding seating to your normal sanctuary or worship space, but also providing overflow seating in other rooms and broadcasting your worship services to those spaces.
See our guide to setting up overflow rooms for video broadcasts.
Don’t forget Christmas decorations, too! This helps create a festive and welcoming atmosphere, and contributes to the overall experience of the service. If you don’t have the budget for decor, ask your regular attendees if they’ll help decorate the church in the months and weeks beforehand.
Train Volunteers to Help Events Run Smoothly
In addition to helping decorate the church, recruit and train volunteers to help during your Christmas and holiday services. Ask church members to assist with parking, welcoming people at front doors, and directing people to the appropriate locations. This will help to reduce congestion and confusion, and will make the experience more enjoyable for attendees.
Make sure your church welcome desk is staffed with knowledgeable and approachable people. And if your church doesn’t normally have a welcome desk, create a temporary one for the influx of new guests arriving for the holidays. Be ready to greet people and explain your church’s mission — coffee and donuts go a long way in making people feel welcome and initiating conversation, too.
Prepare Your Digital Space in Addition to Your Physical Space
Getting your church’s physical location is just as important as preparing your church’s digital location. That means your services need to be broadcasted online and your audience needs to be able to find them. Understand why your church should be live streaming with this guide.
Why is Live Streaming Christmas Services Important?
Live streaming a Christmas Eve church service allows people to attend services remotely and enables you to reach a wider audience. It's a great way to boost engagement of your Christmas services. By streaming your services, people who are unable to attend in person can participate remotely. This could include individuals who are ill, have mobility issues, or live in a different location. By providing a live stream of the service, churches ensure these individuals are able to take part in the service and feel connected to their community — particularly around the holidays.
Second, live streaming a Christmas Eve church service can also help to reach a wider audience. This could include people who are not regular churchgoers, but who are interested in attending a Christmas service. By streaming to Facebook, YouTube, your website, and other destinations, churches make it easy for these individuals to participate and introduce them to the church community, especially if they’re hesitant to visit at first.
Third, live streaming a Christmas service can also be useful for people who are traveling during the holiday season. This could include individuals who are visiting family or friends in other locations, or who are on vacation. By streaming services, you enable regular attendees to participate in the service, even if they are not physically present in the church.
Final Thoughts + Further Reading
Overall, live streaming a Christmas Eve church service can help to make the service more accessible and inclusive, and can foster a sense of community among church members, even if they are not physically present in the same location. By taking these steps, churches can ensure that their Christmas services are enjoyable and meaningful for all attendees. Check out these resources for more ways to expand your church’s reach:
