10 Marks of A Successful Christmas Program

Your Christmas service is a big deal. The influx of new people coming that you want to get to come back, throughout the year, the fun festivities going on, celebrating Jesus’ birth. You want to get it just right and a lot of planning and preparation go into your Christmas activities.

This post is designed to help you plan it all out much faster and more efficiently, all while making sure it’s super successful.

But first, let’s determine what makes a Christmas program a success.

By what mark or gauge do you consider it successful? What are your goals?

For each church, this goal will be different and that’s okay.

Goals:

To seek and save the lost
To instill a love for God within the people
To edify and build up your congregation
To celebrate the birth of Christ, to honor Him in our worship
To create community and fellowship within the church body
To develop the congregation’s spiritual maturity and knowledge of the Lord
To earn enough money to keep your church running (you can’t serve the people if your church closes down due to lack of funds)
To help meet needs of those outside the body of Christ (things like adopting those less fortunate and gifting to them for the holidays)
To increase your church flock, getting them to come back after the holidays and to become a regular part of your church

Whatever goals you choose, the overarching goal should be this:

If someone is giving you an hour of their time, make it worth it. That’s always my goal in each and every blog post I write. I think to myself, “If someone is giving me 4 minutes, I want to blow their socks off and make them say that reading my stuff was worth their time.”

Keeping that in mind, always, as you create any of your church services will really help you plan things. You want to get to the heart of the matter and really make waves in our world for Christ and every minute counts. 🥰

When planning your event, you’ll want to make sure your plans line up with all your goals so that it can be a success.

After you have your goals straight, let’s dive into the marks of a successful Christmas program, so you can get to planning!

10 Marks of A Successful Christmas Program

If you’re looking for examples of some successful Christmas programs, Parkside Church in Ohio is a great place to start. Fortunately for us, they have the last few years of their Christmas services online. 🎉

Take a look at them and glean some ideas for your own services, seeing how things are run there.

Some of the things you’ll notice are…

1) Strong Focus on Christ

Absolutely everything we do as believers should be for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31) and obviously your Christmas program should be no exception. 😊

In some churches, they tend to downplay Christ at Christmas-time in order to appeal to a wider audience and it’s a tragedy. We are set apart, not to BE like the world. The point is not to appeal to the world but to help them see that Christ is better than what they already have in the world…and He always is!!!💯

Having a strong focus on Christ in your Christmas program is essential. It glorifies God, draws people to Him, and helps us all worship Him in our hearts and lives more!

2) Meaningful Storytelling

This could be the Bible story you’re telling or the storytelling of the speakers, but either way, it’s meaningful and resonates in the hearts of the people.

Remember that you’re also telling a story through the songs that you choose!

3) Festive Decorations

You want your decorations to invoke the spirit of Christmas. Parkside Church does their decorations simple and elegant. It’s a great way to go (but I may be biased because I’m a minimalist 😆).

Red Based Decor:

Midnight Blue Based Decor:

The background becomes even more beautiful behind the Pastor and the color of his sweater matches it perfectly…

Red and Midnight Blue Decor:

However you decorate is okay, just make sure it is full of beautiful decorations that will help your churchgoers to get in the mood for Christmas!

You can get decorations for your church cheap on Facebook Marketplace. If you ask the seller for a receipt, it is tax deductable for your church also, so there’s no reason not to save that money! 😊

It’s also a good idea to have the people performing and the Pastor wearing Christmas-y colors. If your theme is red, you could have them wear red and black. If the theme is blue, you could have them wear black. Think about what colors you’d like your ministry team to wear and what will clash with your holiday decorations.

4) Sense of Community / Belonging

Creating a sense of community, helping and looking out for each other, fellowshipping together, worshipping together, loving one another, and stirring one another up to good works is all part of belonging to a church.

You want to instill that sense of “we’re all in this together” type of feeling for everyone who walks through your doors, whether at Christmas-time or throughout the year. It’s a community and we are welcoming others into the Father’s house.

5) Theme

This is my personal FAVORITE part about Christmas services! I LOVE to see what theme they’ve chosen to go with that year. It’s just really fun to look forward to. 😊

Having a different theme each year keeps things fresh and new and is highly engaging to your congregation!

There are many different themes you can go with. Here’s some great ideas…

Light of the World
A King is Born
Emmanuel, God With Us
A Savior is Born
Long Expected Hope
The Peace of Christmas
Comfort and Joy
Silent Night
The God of Miracles
Hope is Born
Greatest Story Ever Told
Behold the King
Come Let Us Adore Him
Great Expectation
A Weary World Rejoices
Wise Men Still Seek Him
Characters of Christmas
The Meaning of Christmas
Blessed Be His Name
The Newborn King
Uncluttered Christmas
Gifts of the Magi
From Manger to Majesty
When Did Christmas Begin
The Ultimate Gift
A Baby Changes Everything
Home for the Holidays
Miracle in the Manger
A Season of Anticipation
The Humble King
The King Has Come
Christmas Light
God’s Greatest Gift
Joy to Your World
Decluttering Christmas
Journey to the King
More Than a Baby
God Became Flesh
Let There Be Light
Nativity Wonder
Unwrapping Christmas
Merry and Bright: Bringing Joy To Your World
Oh Little Town: A Story of Humble Beginnings

6) Uplifting, God-Honoring Christmas Music

The purpose of the Christmas service is to lead people to Christ. While it’s a fun, special event for your church, the main purpose of saving souls and bringing those marginalized (outside of a regular, godly church) to be reunited with Christ and to come back in, cannot be lost.

Keeping our focus on that at all times is important.

Since many people connect so well with music, the music you display for the people that day should be on par with the focus to save them and usher them back into a right relationship with God.

You could go a couple ways with that. You could have slow and worship-filled music or positive and upbeat music. Either way is up to your church and there’s no right or wrong here. Just be sure to change up the songs each year and play completely DIFFERENT songs each year so that it’s not repetitive and comes off boring to the hearer.

There are plenty of great Christian Christmas songs to play for your congregation during your Christmas-time services. Here are a few great ones to consider…

Away in a Manger
The First Noel
O Come All Ye Faithful
This Baby Boy
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Glory To God in the Highest
Angels We Have Heard on High
Children Go Where I Send Thee
How Great Our Joy
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
Do You Hear
He Made a Way in a Manger
A Baby Changes Everything
Christmas in My Hometown
What Child is This?
Sweet Little Jesus Boy
Hope Was Born This Night
Gloria in Excelsis Deo
Turn Our Eyes Upon Jesus
Once in a Royal David’s City
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Joseph and Mary
Humble King
It’s All About the Baby
Strange Way to Save the World
Ring the Bells
In the Bleak Midwinter
Joy to the World
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
The Night That Christ Was Born
Have Yourself a Blessed Little Christmas
Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming
Child of the Poor
Come Let Us Adore Him
Angels (Glory To God)
God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen
O Holy Night
Give Me Jesus
We Three Kings
What a Glorious Night
Salvation’s Song
Jesus, What a Wonderful Child
What Did You Say Was The Baby’s Name
Come Adore the Humble King
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Christmas Offering
I Wonder as I Wander
What Child is This
By the Third Day of Christmas
King of Kings
Carol of the Bells

Music plays such a vital role into the Christmas program. It’s important to really think through all the songs and choose them wisely so that it invokes the mood in which you’re trying to instill into the hearts of the people.

7) Engaging Sequence of Events

The sequence of events should be thought through as well. Churches see up to 3x the amount of people coming to the church service. This means there are a lot of unbelievers and people who only visit a church once or twice a year (usually Christmas and Easter). It’s a great opportunity to reach the hearts of the lost.

You don’t want to bore them to death 😆 but you don’t want to change who you are in Christ either. There’s a balance there. Doing the same thing for a long time would not be great. This is a time to mix things up a lot to continue to keep their engagement and to spread the love of Christ to them through your service.

A great sequence of events is below. You can adapt it to your own church style and change it up as it flows into your service and special events…

Open with instrumental music (to quiet the people down)
Welcome message by the Pastor (offer a Bible reading plan for the New Year to help people start out right)
Pastor prays and thanks God (good time to mention materialism)
1-2 songs (see #6)
One part of the birth of Christ story Bible reading
Special music by children’s choir
Second part of the birth of Christ story Bible reading
Special music by a solo singer
Third part of the birth of Christ story Bible reading
1-2 songs (see #6)
Sermon by the Pastor (shorter 20-minute sermon)
1-2 songs (see #6) or instrumental music (orchestra)
Calling to come to Christ by the Pastor (shorter 10-minute sermon)
1 song (see #6)
Benediction by the Pastor (thanking the congregation for coming and wishing them well and inviting them to return)

8) The Church Service Accompanies Fun, Special Events

Christmas-time and holidays in general are something that your congregation really looks forward to all year long. I know for myself, I literally wait all year in anticipation of Christmas. You don’t want to let the hearts of the people down and it’s a time for fun and coming together as a COMMUNITY in the hearts and lives of the people.

There are several things that you could do to accompany your Sunday church service. Some ideas are below…

Pajama Christmas Party (this would be great for the kids!)
Christmas Card-Making Workshop
Wreath Making Class
Christmas Caroling
Christmas Coloring Contest (by age groups)
Operation Christmas Child (fill a shoe box for a child in need)
Christmas Eve Candlelight Service
Angel Christmas Tree: Bless Someone in Need (the congregation pulls names off the tree to buy things for the less fortunate)
Christmas Cookie Exchange
Toy Drive for Kids
Christmas Potluck After Church Service
Christmas Cookie Decorating Workshop
Live Nativity Scene or Drive-Through Nativity
Gingerbread House Decorating Contest
Christmas Concert / Christmas Spectacular

The focus here is fun events that create a sense of community for your church and allow your congregation to get to know each other better.

9) Sermon is Well Thought Out

This can be where the themes come into play. The Christmas story can get very redundant over time. Yes, we want to display the Bible story to the people, but the sermon shouldn’t always be the same. I’ve attended churches where the Christmas sermon is always the same, year after year, and it got so boring to me that I just couldn’t go to that service anymore.

You definitely don’t want to bore your audience. The sermon should be completely different, from a different angle each and every year.

While you want to hit on things like Jesus was born for EVERYONE, not just a select few, and reaching to save the lost, the sermon itself and how you get there should be completely different.

Each year striving to come at the Bible story from a different perspective/angle. If one year, your sermon doesn’t resonate with someone, it could resonate in their heart another year, so making it different can really help both unbelievers and your regular congregation.

10) Your Service is Highly Promoted to Reach the Lost

Since there are so many new faces who go to a Christmas service, you want to reach them and get them to come. Here’s a few ways to promote your special Christmas service…

Promote on all social media avenues
Create a new custom Facebook cover
Ask your congregation to invite at least 1 new person to the service
Create a YouTube promo video highlighting last year’s service
Livestream your Christmas service on YouTube (keep it LIVE all year round)
Pass out flyers at the mall or door-to-door around the church
Make sure your church website is highly SEO’d for Google traffic
Show and have a collection of church sermons online
Partner with sister churches to get the word out
Put flyers in local businesses, community centers, and public spaces
Consider creating a blog on your church’s website

These are some great ideas to help you keep your Christmas-time services fresh and new, while still maintaining who you are as a church body. ❤️

10 Marks of A Successful Christmas Program