Has your church scheduled Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or New Year’s Day services this year? If so, your congregation will join a number of other churches across the country that plan to welcome everyone who wants to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
Christmas falls on a Sunday this year, and for most pastors, that gives their congregations all the more reason to assemble together. More than 5 in 6 U.S. Protestant pastors (84%) say their church plans to have services on Christmas Day, according to the Nashville, TN-based, evangelical research firm Lifeway Research.
In addition, slightly fewer (71%) say the same about Christmas Eve. While 85% plan on hosting New Year’s Day services on Sunday, 21% will have a Saturday New Year’s Eve gathering. Few pastors (2%) are not planning on having services on any of those days, the research firm also found.
“Families have many traditions on Christmas morning, and most pastors acknowledge not as many of their members will be present compared to Christmas Eve and services earlier in the month,” said Lifeway Research Executive Director Scott McConnell. “However, churches not holding services on Christmas Day are still the exception.”
As pastors recognize Christmas Eve specifically and the holiday season in general as a high attendance time at their churches, most plan to capitalize on the potential crowds by hosting services. Overall, churches have similar plans as they did six years ago, according to a 2016 Lifeway Research study.
This year, 60% of the congregations polled plan to have church services on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and 25% will only have a Christmas Day service, Lifeway reports. Around 1 in 10 pastors (11%) plan to only have a Christmas Eve service, higher than the 8% in 2016.
“Only 6% of Protestant churches will skip both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day services, likely including traditions that don’t meet on Sundays,” said McConnell. “Churches that do not meet when these holidays land on Sunday often say it’s for staff and members to spend time with their families. But few want to disrupt the churchgoing rhythm by missing two weeks in a row.”
Some Pastors Planning to Hold New Year’s Services
Lifeway noted that similar to their planned Christmas services, few pastors are making changes to their New Year’s plan compared to six years ago. Today, 85% of U.S. Protestant pastors polled by the firm plan to hold services on New Year’s Day, unchanged from 2016. Slightly fewer pastors plan to hold New Year’s Eve services this year (25% in 2016 v. 21% in 2022).
“Some churches meet on New Year’s Eve for a service followed by fun and fellowship,” said McConnell. “Others have a late-night or watch night service reflecting on the past year with spiritually significant times of prayer and observing communion. For African American churches holding services, there is also the observance of Emancipation as it was first anticipated on the eve of January 1, 1863. Even among groups where New Year’s Eve services are most common, it’s still a minority who gather that day.”
On New Year’s Day, there are several groups of pastors who are more likely to treat it as a normal Sunday and have services. Pastors under the age of 55 (88%) are more likely than those 65 and older (81%), according to the research firm.
Methodology
The phone survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors was conducted by Lifeway Research on Sept. 6-30, 2022. The calling list was a stratified random sample, drawn from a list of all Protestant churches. Quotas were used for church size. The sample provides 95% confidence that the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 3.2%.
For more information, visit LifewayResearch.com.
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