5 Steps to Plan Your Christmas Eve Service

By Paul Millarc

Read Time: 4 minutes

Hi, my name is Paul, and without a shadow of a doubt, one of my family's favorite Christmas traditions is attending our church's Christmas Eve service. The pause and focus on the Savior in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the season seems to recalibrate my heart and refocus my affections. This year, Christmas Eve falls on a Friday, and this is one service you'll want to get right!

The Christmas Eve service is often the crescendo of the church's December activities, the final bow wrapped around all your Christmas services and themed events. To help you make this year's Christmas Eve services one to remember, I want to give you some ways to prepare both your heart and the church for this powerful service. 

1) Pray, Pray, Pray. 

Start praying now that the church will be united in focus on our Savior's birth. Churches can notoriously over plan and over polish Christmas activities without ever talking to God about it! I know this because I've done this. Sadly, we can put so much on our plates that we forget to invite the Lord to the table. Christmas is a great time to unite the church in prayer throughout the Christmas season by both remembering God's faithfulness throughout the year and asking Him for His continued guidance in the days to come. 

You may want to write a short, daily devotional to put on your website or a daily prayer reminder that you text to congregants at a certain point during the day—record advent videos to upload to your website, Facebook, or YouTube pages. If you don't have a church website, we have a solution for you so you can have your church's website up in about an hour and a half. Just click here to learn about StartSITES. 

Do whatever it takes to get families praying together and bathe the entire end-of-year calendar in prayer. 

2) Make Time for Togetherness. 

Pastor, feel free to create moments of togetherness for the church during this service. Whether it's tea and cookies in the foyer, installing a themed backdrop for families to take photos, or simply giving special gifts to visitors; help this service not be rushed. Serve hot cocoa, apple cider, and a snack and give people time to chat and connect. For many, Christmas is a hard season, and they are longing for community and connectedness that they may have lost. The church family may be the only family accessible to those who are lonely; please don't lose sight of this pastor.

During the service, don't be afraid to have a greeting time or even a time when people can pray for one another. Many churches serve communion/the Lord's Supper as well. While the Christmas Eve service is traditionally shorter than regular services (often 35-55 minutes), leaving a margin for conversation and lingering can maximize fellowship opportunities. 

3) Make it Memorable. 

The Christmas Eve service is about gathering around to focus on beholding the coming of the Savior. This service also lends itself to having unique touches that create lasting memories. For example, one time, our church rented a movie-quality snowmaker, and when the service was over, the foyer was filled with snow for all to enjoy! 

There are endless creative possibilities, from candles to fireworks, dramas to live nativities, and even animals. At the same time, also remember the church's traditions that powerfully capture the truth of our Savior's birth. Sing carols, light candles, and have readings that create continuity and familiarity among the attendees, many of which may be first-time guests. 

If you want to make this service special, start planning now! Executing special touches with excellence requires planning weeks ahead of time, not days. 

4) Involve Everyone! 

One easy way to involve everyone is to create giving opportunities. You can partner with a local food bank to collect canned goods, or have members bring in gently used coats to give to a shelter. Is there a special missions offering taken up this service? Jesus is the greatest gift ever given to the world, and we are always reminded of this when we give to others. 

You may want to have a children's sermon where they receive a special toy or an advent candle and scripture reading from specific families in the congregation. Get as many as you can involved. 

One way to include others in the church to bless your city is to create a Community Development Corporation as an outreach arm of the church. We'd love to share with you more about how many churches are creating opportunities and making inroads to loving their communities. Give us a call at 770-638-3444 to learn more. 

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5) Plan, Plan, Plan. 

When will your Christmas service be this year, and how will you promote it to the community? What tools will you put in your members' hands to help them invite their friends and neighbors to this service? How will you leverage your social media platforms to both build excitement and invite the community? When will you purchase the items needed to pull off your big plans; don't wait until the shelves are empty! Also, remember many of your leaders may be out of town, so enlist volunteers and your team early.  

My hope and prayer is that you capture the glory and the triumph of the incarnation this Christmas season as you communicate all God has done for us in sending His Son. May this year's Christmas Eve service be the best one yet!

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