This Christmas season, churches can reach out to their local community and engage in meaningful activities that embody the values of Christmas - love, joy, and giving. To help facilitate this wonderful opportunity for involvement, we have compiled some fantastic Christmas outreach ideas for your church – a great way to get involved during the holidays!

1. Caroling Concert

During the holiday season, church members coming together to sing Christmas music in various community spots – from neighborhoods and nursing homes to hospitals - is a beautiful way of conveying love and joy, as well as inviting people for special services at your church, but beyond that, create a special event at your church specifically for caroling and invite family and friends for candlelight carols, hot chocolate, and fresh cookies.

Many unchurched people know all of the words to some of the most common carols that tell the Gospel story of Jesus' birth, so this is a great time to remind your community about the true reason for the season separate from the holiday hits on the radio.

Caroling isn’t just singing. It provides a sense of unity among congregations while also helping bring more individuals into your church events around this time of year, and in a large enough group, people with welcoming smiles can blend in and create a welcoming atmostphere, even if their singing voice isn't as good as everyone else's.

Neighborhood Caroling

Invite church members and everyone in the community to join an event of Christmas caroling! Start sending out early invitations, so you can spread joy through your neighborhood. Prepare music sheets or lyrics before hand as well as make sure that all houses on the route have been included, and leave behind an invitation to join your church fort Christmas Eve.

Nursing Home Visits

During the holiday season, visiting a nursing home is an important demonstration of Christ’s love within the community. This visit should be more than singing carols. It involves spending quality time with those in residence to make them feel respected and cared for.

Popular Christmas songs such as “Silent Night,” or “Joy to the World” will bring back nostalgic memories of Christmas gone by. 

Hospital Performances

Check with your local hospital for its protocols on setting up a performance. Patients and staff will certainly enjoy traditional songs like ‘Away In A Manager’ and ‘Silent Night.’’

2. Host a Winter Wonderland Festival

Reaching out to the community during the Christmas season can be achieved through a Winter Wonderland Festival hosted by your church. Transform it into an enchanting place with fun activities like snowball fights, snowman construction competitions and ice skating relays so people of all ages can come together for unforgettable memories. 

Have food stations offering seasonal delicacies such as hot cocoa, cookies or chestnuts that will make everyone feel cozy and warm while at this event. 

Set up a booth or a popup tent dedicated solely to information about your Christmas services.

Have some of your friendliest greeters walking through the crowds with invitations to Christmas Eve to start conversations and invite guests back for your Christmas Eve service.

Advertise your event with an outdoor vinyl banner perfect for withstanding the weather, and choose a color scheme that will stand out against the white backdrop of snow (depending on the location of your church).

Snow-Themed Games

At your Winter Wonderland Festival, you can create a sense of community by incorporating some amazing snow-themed games into the event. Ideas include snowball fights and socks snowball battles, ice skating races, Snowman Bingo and even snowy treasure hunts or dodgeball, all sure to keep participants entertained! Allowing everyone to have fun together will promote camaraderie among them too.

Festive Food Stations

Provide an assortment of Christmas-themed foods for purchase, or invite local food trucks to come and serve your guests - they make money from the sales, and it's one less thing to organize with your volunteers.

3. Christmas Toy Drive

During the holiday season, your church can organize a Christmas toy drive to break the stereotype that many people have that churches are more interested in getting than giving. 

With proper organization and outreach efforts such as events like fundraisers or community gatherings, collecting donations through church websites or partnering with local businesses to increase visibility, you’ll be able to make someone’s holidays special! 

Placing collection bins in strategic locations is essential for maximizing contributions from members of the public who might be willing to donate, but may not attend your church. All these steps will help provide much-needed toys that bring smiles on children’s faces and open to door to share the hope of Christmas with families.

Donation Collection

The key to a successful Christmas toy drive is coming up with an effective plan. To start, set out collection points at your church where people can contribute toys or money for the cause. Consider organizing a ‘toy party’ as another way of boosting donations and involving members of the community in this meaningful initiative.

Toy Distribution

Work together with local charitable organizations such as schools, churches and community-based programs can ensure these gifts get into the hands of those that would benefit from them most.

Community Involvement

Communicate about the toy drive often and with every means available from your Sunday morning announcements, your bulletin, and your social media channels.

4. Gingerbread House Decorating Contest

Organizing a gingerbread house decorating competition shows your community the culture of your church. This is an exciting activity that also has the potential to bring church members together in unity and bring people from your community into your building who otherwise may not make your weekend service their first visit.

While guests are decorating their gingerbread houses, let them know about upcoming events at your church and invite them back.

Event Promotion

Creating an event page on facebook and use social media platforms to invite people to the event.

You can also promote your event through local newspapers, radio stations or neighborhood bulletin boards. Inviting friends, family members and even encouraging them to spread the word will help draw in more people - the more people who know about it, the better! 

An outdoor vinyl banner can help your community know that your event is coming up, and some welcome flag banners in your church parking lot can help visitors know they've found the right place when they arrive to your event.

5. Christmas Card-Making Workshop (Mom's Night Out)

The Christmas season is the perfect opportunity for churches to create a sense of community and connection by hosting card-making workshops (aka Mom's Night Out). 

This fun activity allows people to make personalized Christmas cards – expressing their creativity and sharing holiday cheer with family, friends or those in need from within their own neighborhood. It's also a great social evening with snacks and time away from the busyness of Christmas.

Card-Making Supplies

Paper, markers, stickers and stamps should all be included in your supply list so those taking part can design charming cards that are certain to delight their recipients. With these supplies readily available, participants will have everything they require to craft special festive greetings. Invite friends to just show up, or have a nominal fee to cover the costs of the supplies.

Personalized Invitations

This could be a great plan to ask people who are sending their Christmas cards out, to add an invitation for others to join and celebrate Christmas at your church.

6. Advent Calendar Acts of Kindness

Create a countdown to Christmas by coming up with an Advent Calendar Acts of Kindness campaign. This concept encourages members in the church to carry out kindness deeds each day during this season and post about it on social media platforms.

This is a terrific opportunity for individuals at church as well as others across all communities to extend their generosity and happiness leading up to Christmas!

Some ideas could include:

• Gift a Christmas Cookie Day
• Shovel A Driveway
• Pay-It-Forward at the coffee shop
• Chocolates for friends
• Caroling
• Clean Up The Park
• Volunteering
• Thank You Notes

Daily Kindness Tasks

The holidays are a time to spread good cheer and kindness in the community. We can make an impact by engaging in simple acts such as helping out neighbors with their groceries, providing donations to food banks, or sending warm thank-you notes to teachers. All of these small gestures will bring festive spirit into your locality during the Christmas season.

Social Media Sharing

Encourage participants to post their acts of kindness on social media outlets and tag the church’s account so the church can reshare. Doing so will help your community recognize the impact your church can have.

Community Engagement

The invitation of local citizens to join the Advent calendar program is a great opportunity for community inclusion as well as advertising your church. Celebrating Christmas together and sharing its message of love, happiness, and kindness can bring more people closer to you while also relaying this special holiday’s spirit in an encouraging way.

7. Christmas Cookie Exchange

During this joyful holiday season, why not bring your church community together with a delicious Christmas cookie exchange event? Participants can bake their favorite cookies and then share bring them to trade and enjoy one evening.

Cookie Swapping

The cookie exchange event during the Christmas season is a fun and memorable way to connect with family traditions while holiday shopping. Participants bring their homemade cookies, trading them with others at the swap – providing an opportunity for everyone to try different kinds of treats and share in festive cheer. It’s all about celebrating togetherness around Christmas time!

Friends and neighbors who may not come for a weekend service will get to see what your building is like and make some friends along the way.

8. Angel Tree Program

During the holiday season, churches and their members have an amazing opportunity to give back to their community by participating in the Angel Tree program. The initiative entails setting up a tree with gift suggestions from children who are less fortunate. Churchgoers then choose one of these requests and fulfill it providing joyous moments for those kids on Christmas Day.

This is like a toy drive, but is geared intentionally to specific recipients.

Tree Setup

Any member of your congregation can lend a helping hand by participating in the Angel Tree set up. A tree is placed prominently at the church with tags featuring names and ages for children needing gifts hung on it. When members pick their tag, they purchase an appropriate gift to be given away before holidays arrive. In this easy way, all those that take part are able to bring joy into a young life during Christmas. 

As an added touch, suggest writing a quick note to the recipient to let them know about the hope of Jesus at Christmas.

Looking for more ideas? Here are another 12 Christmas Outreach Ideas for your church.

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