5 Christmas Eve service strategies for 2024

[Updated Nov. 2023]

Christmas Eve services give churches a unique opportunity to reach people with the hopeful message of the gospel. Pastors know that many people who don’t regularly go to church will attend during the holidays. In fact, 50% of Americans plan to attend Christmas church services, and some churches see 3X more attendance at Christmas than the rest of the year! 

Christmas is also the most active season for generosity, with 30% of all annual gifts to churches being donated in the month of December alone. This significant influx of charitable donations makes December the most financially impactful month of the year. 

In other words, Christmas is crunch time for churches. With so much at stake, church leaders are on the lookout for innovative Christmas service ideas to end the year strong. Check out these five proven strategies to maximize your impact during your Christmas Eve service and into the new year!

Strategy #1—Build a Christmas hub across all digital channels

Planning and executing Christmas church services can keep your church staff overwhelmingly busy. In the midst of so many holiday activities, it’s easy for important information to get lost as you try to share it with your community. 

This year, cut through all the clutter with a central hub for celebrating Christmas with your church. On your church’s website and mobile app, you can create a special Christmas section or page with all of your holiday service details, including:

• Event calendars with dates, locations, and contact information
• Sign-up forms for volunteering, prayer requests, etc.
• Seasonal giving opportunities, like toy drives, gifts for missionaries, and charities
• Shareable images for inviting people to church via email or social media

You can also download your free Christmas Media Kit to get professionally designed slides, graphics, and promo videos, along with step-by-step instructions for adding your custom church branding!

Strategy #2—Establish touchpoints beyond your Christmas Eve services

How can your church build excitement before Christmas and keep your visitors connected into the new year? The most effective strategy is by creating digital touchpoints that engage your community throughout the week.

Here are some examples:

• Add an Advent reading plan to your app. Helping your community read and learn about the coming of the Messiah through daily devotional content keeps the focus where it should be during the Christmas season. Don’t forget—63% of Christians are asking their church leaders for more online discipleship resources!
• Create a 2–3 minute video retelling the Christmas story. Sharing a heart-felt video centered on the Christmas story can give people something to reflect on and enjoy on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
• Launch a podcast. While this might sound like a big undertaking, consider this: 41% of Americans today listen to podcasts! With Subsplash Media, you can automatically convert your videos and audio to podcasts that can be shared on your website, mobile app, and other podcast platforms like Spotify, Google, and Apple Podcasts. However your church shares its podcast, you’ll find there is an active audience waiting to listen.

Your members spend several hours online everyday, being exposed to all sorts of ads, communications, opinions, and distractions. Subsplash makes it simple for your church to provide daily devotional content, online Bible reading plans, sermon videos, and other resources all on one integrated platform!

Strategy #3—Stream your Christmas Eve service with Subsplash Live

People want to connect with each other in-person, and it’s clear that the gathered church is here to stay. But at the same time, people expect to be able to connect with their churches digitally. That’s why adopting a hybrid experience is critical to engaging people both in-person and online. 

Before you live stream your Christmas Eve church service this year, review your live streaming strategy with your pastoral leadership and tech team. Is your streaming solution easy to use? Is it fully integrated with your mobile app, website, and TV apps? Is it reaching your entire audience across social channels like YouTube and Facebook? 

Subsplash Live has helped thousands of churches stay connected with their communities each week by streaming church services to the most popular platforms. Many churches have members traveling during Christmas who would love to watch their Christmas Eve service online. Don’t miss your opportunity to share this special celebration with people near and far!

Strategy #4—Create opportunities to support your mission

Christmas is one of the most generous times of the year. With one third of your church’s annual donations coming in December, now is the time to ensure your donors have every opportunity to share their generosity. 

Here are some steps you can take today to make sure that your Christmas donation process is ready:

1. Activate giving in your mobile app. People attending your Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services may not have cash or checks, but they’ll have their smartphones. Having your mobile giving solution ready will make it easy for them to participate in your tithes and offerings. 
2. Test your online giving process. Make a donation through your church’s mobile app, website, and text-to-give and see what your donors experience. Is it simple and enjoyable? If not, discover how Subsplash Giving can improve your giving experience. 
3. Enable “guest giving.” With Subsplash Giving, anyone can choose to give as a guest. This simplifies the giving process and removes the barrier of signing up for a new giving account. 
4. Set up specific funds for donations. Today’s donors enjoy being able to support a specific cause rather than making a general donation. Be sure to provide giving options for your donors to choose from, such as missions, youth groups, building funds, and so on. 
5. Prepare your messaging. Create giving slides that display all of the ways people can donate to your church—and how their donations are making a real-life impact. Don’t forget to prepare a friendly “thank you” message for those who make donations during your Christmas church services! 
6. Send a push notification through your mobile app. Sending a message with the impact that your church is making on your community is an excellent way to invite people to support your mission through donations.

Strategy #5—Engage & manage your community

To keep the momentum going from your Christmas Eve church service, it’s critical to continue to engage your visitors. But how can your church keep track of visitors and communicate with them?

Church management tools on the Subsplash Platform is the people-first database that supports real connections. Featuring events, volunteer management, email campaigns, and more, Fluro also allows you to segment your members into groups to help you organize and optimize every aspect of digital discipleship. Now your church can have a single source of truth for knowing and growing your community!    

Other free Christmas Eve service resources

At Subsplash, we believe the truth of Jesus through the life of the local church is the greatest source of hope and joy for the world. In the end, every church’s mission is to make disciples who love and follow Jesus.

For even more inspirational Christmas service ideas, check out these free resources!

• Christmas ebook: 7 Ways to Maximize Your Impact This Christmas
• Christmas webinar: Maximize your impact this Christmas & beyond
• Christmas graphics & media: Free Christmas Media Kit