I am a pastor and my church will be having services. I think it's awesome that Christmas falls on a Sunday and we can have worship Christmas morning. I wish we did it every Christmas. It is my opinion that if people are choosing to do something other than come and worship on Christmas morning then they can not say they are celebrating Christmas that morning, they are celebrating the cultural winter solstices holiday.

The congregation where I minister is having a service on Christmas morning, and so are all the other congregations in our denomination in our city. That goes even for the megachurch downtown.

I'm part of a multi-site church in DC, and we won't be holding services. (At least not at my campus, I don't know about others, but I suspect not.) The multi-site nature of the operation does end up being rather volunteer-intensive, and the very transient nature of DC means most people (especially our rather young congregation) end up leaving the city anyway. We've closed in other years when Christmas was even close to Sunday; so many people are out of town. It's less of a matter of spending Christmas itself with families as just having so many people displaced.

I'd prefer to stay open, even if just at one location (although that's probably less of a labor saver than you might think), since the notion of canceling church...for Christmas...seems a little absurd. But then again, I'm among those who will be out of town!

instead of two gatherings we will have one and it will be simple and abbreviated.

This is one of those issues that annoy. On the one end, you'll have non-Christians who will point and laugh and say, see if they don't believe it enough to disrupt their Christmas, why exactly, should I? And on the other hand you'll see the self-righteous folk saying, see they're not real Christians.

In my opinion, this is the kind of decision that should be made by the congregation in question.

Maybe I just don't understand the big church thing, but why is it that the services can't simply be scaled down to reflect the attendance and volunteer levels? Or why not have the Christmas "services" be located in small groups where perhaps communion is taken(depending on denomination) and have a brief scripture reading? Is there a possibility of thinking creatively about how to do church in non-traditional ways? Or does everything a church does have to reflect a certain level of production quality?

Further, if mega-churches can't handle a decline for Christmas, what does this say about their resiliency to attendance drops in general?

I would love to hear that I am simply missing something about the organizational nature of big churches, but otherwise I would be concerned.

we are having 2 christmas eve services and not services on sunday...does that make us a sell out? celebrate on saturday and stay home with your family on sunday morning...seems okay with me.

What is wrong with not having a service on Christmas day? What reasons do people put forward?

Regardless of the day, we have met to celebrate the birth of Christ on the 25th for a long number of years. It's an earlier service 10.30am and lasts 30 minutes or so. The children are asked to bring their toys along (can be noisy). We light the final candle in our advent wreath and offer each other the Peace of Christ.
Presbyterian, Ireland.

I don't really see why canceling services is considered selling out. As another commenter already said, the decision should be based on the needs of the individual congregation...and either way is okay. As a lay person I attend church groups several times throughout the week, plus the regular worship service. I would be sad to miss out on my family time Christmas morning...and I think it would be a bad witness to them, too. Some of my relatives would wonder about why I was leaving them (again) to go to (yet another) church event. I support those churches that choose to stay open, but I think it's fine for them not to have services as well.

We usually have two services on Sunday mornings.

That weekend, we will have four Christmas Eve services, and no services on Sunday morning. That's a net +2. And allows those who really feel the need to worship on Sunday to visit other churches in the area.

Interesting breadth of discussion...in a medieval sense.

Certainly, people are going to look for a service on Christmas day, or Christmas eve namely because traditionally the family always did this, whether they were regular church goers or not ,it was something everyone did. Cultural and custom, never under estimate the power of either.

However, these days we seem to see a breaking of traditions, a tiring of the Religious Crusade being perpetrated on the hoi polloi through a daily bombardment of Right-Wing indignation about whatever Moralistic rant du jour with the Left-Wing whinging about the Right's Ranting.

So a break from the morass of the daily feed of Conservative rage and Liberal frustration is a welcome respite, and not having to go to a Mega-church where the Pastor may not speak much about the underpinnings of the corporate belief, the oblique references sageing back to the televised/talking-head rants cannot be avoided.

Perhaps, we as a followers of G-d and his Son can take this opportunity to state the obvious...that is...

the Christmas we know is a farce...a economic farce perpetuated on the American public since it's inception in the 1900's...and with it, grew the tradition of celebrating this farce with religious trappings.

Perhaps we can scratch out the commodities market by making Christmas about being together as family, and friends actively engaged in our faith by loving one another as though Y'shua himself was hosting the family get together.
And perhaps, instead of a Pastor orating about a overly-told story that everyone pretty much knows by heart...perhaps, we can talk at home about our lives, our problems, triumphs, and then pray with our families and friends.
Love, pray, eat...now there is a Christmas tradition that goes way back.

But who cares, how much is the budget for a service? Oh yeah, avoid the ceremonies until we can fill the seats to garner a respectable receipt that will advance the margins into the black.

It's a wonder we haven't seen a VISA commercial for The American Church, inc.

I'm erring on the side that the leaders of churches know what they are doing.

I think we're missing the point a little. The issue is not that it's Christmas, but that it's a Sunday...the day of Resurrection. Many in the American church abandoned the importance of gathering on Sunday as a NT sabbath years ago. We expect our worship of God to fit in with our lives and cultural values, rather than expect our lives and cultural values to adjust to God and the historical witness of his Church.

The fact that churches are not gathering to worship on a Sunday (Dec 25) in order to accommodate a cultural, and materialistic, celebration is the issue. But for most congregations this is a total non-issue simply because the Sunday-centric worship model was given up decades ago.

I'm almost in a state of shock to hear that it is a bad witness to family and friends to be in church on Christmas Day and that the needs of the congregation must be paramount in making a decision about worship on the day we celebrate the Incarnation.

When worship takes place because it is convenient, and not because this spiritual practice should center our life as those who will indeed love God with ALL our hearts and minds and souls and strength, then worship has become all about us, and nothing about the One we say we worship.

And that is the state of the church in the US. Worship is indeed all about us and how it makes us feel. Just heartbreaking.

Well said, Christy. Well said.

Just a thought:

Col 2:16-17 Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or in respect of a feast, or of the new moon, or of the sabbaths. For these are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.

Unfortunately Christie, it's not about worship anymore, it's about the bottom-line, and not to put a damper on the ol'yule-tide-feel-goodness the incarnation did not occur in winter, December, or with tinsel, candles, and three wise guys.

What we call "christmas" was called "Christ Mass" and it was very Roman Catholic enough to make Cromwell and his parliamentarians chew their collective lips in cancelling the thing. And to further the messiness of it all, our early colonials did not celebrate Christmas either.

No, what you see all around you is a commercial event made, packaged, and sold lock, stock, and barrel to a consumer culture...19th Century America, which has turned into a wonderful fourth quarter spending extravaganza of recession ending wonder.

If you want to celebrate the incarnation of Y'shua may I suggest a date closer to his actual birth...Labor day perhaps...or, if you're Jewishly inclined, Feast of Tabernacles. Anyway, somewhere in the September early October time frame.

Goodness! I said that I had concerns, but Christy and Sheerahkahn, wow!

I think your level of outrage simply does not match the seriousness of the problem. You seem to link the decision not to have Christmas with the downfall of the Western Church. If you are this outraged about this, how are you going to react about the things that really matter? And who will take you seriously by then anyway? Sheesh!

I am not sure how my heartbreak over the decision to let the needs of the congregation drive worship decisions has turned to outrage.

I just think our lives should be centered on worship--that it is in the act of corporate worship, even when it is inconvenient, and sometime boring and all the other problems with it, that we are most likely to recognize that God alone is worthy of honor--and that we have a responsibility to acknowledge God with praise, thanksgiving, gifts and intentional presence. While private prayer is a vital discipline, most of us enter more fully into worship in a larger community--there has always been a public aspect to it.

I also acknowledge that the date we celebrate the Incarnation is highly suspect and very much commercially driven not to mention linked with winter solstice celebrations--but I've chosen to go with it because it does provide a starting point that most people recognize. Using that starting point as a means of grace may open the door for people to engage more fully in transformational acts of worship.

I have written more about my thoughts during this time of the year here: https://thoughtfulpastor.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/this-time-of-the-year/

I am puzzled by the premise here. It seems like we have something backwards in this discussion. Has anyone asked about holding services on Christmas day since 2005? What is the real question...holding services on Christmas, or holding services on Sunday? I remember a very active conversation on an author/speaker's blog a couple years ago about whether churches should open when there is a major snow/ice storm and roads are dangerous. It seems like a much better question is whether there appropriate times to not hold Sunday services, and if so, what are the alternatives to best glorify God and serve the members of our community?

"And who will take you seriously by then anyway?"

Have you ever noticed in your life, or in someone elses that it isn't the large problems that do you or them in...ever why that is...and yet, for some odd reason, the accumulation of small, insignificant, but unattended problems always, without fail, trounce, bounce, and stuff you and other into a tightly lidded box of which there seems no escape...have you ever wonder why that is?

Yeah, this would be one of those situations which, taken by itself, seems insignificant, but laid out over the course of generations has snowballed into a glorious mess of spiritual confusion, and apostasy.

But hey, like you wrote, "how are you going to react about the things that really matter?" I guess my answer is...either fight em or join em?

Christy, you make a good point when you say that our lives should be centered around worship.

I think about Jesus' conversation with the Woman at the Well. She wanted to know where the right location was to worship. "A time is coming, and has now come, when God's true worshippers will worship Him in Spirit and in truth," Jesus said. We are told to "pray without ceasing."

And so I wonder if spending time with my family on Sunday the 25th, chatting together, having a "birthday party for Jesus," and opening presents even...I wonder if all of that if done in the right spirit could be a form of worship.

It sounds like perhaps you are called to attend services on Sunday the 25th. That's great.

Some of us are not called in that way.

I think it is best for me to be at home on the 25th. I try to make corporate worship a priority in my life. I attend a Church-based support group once a week. I go to a Bible study. And then there's the regular worship service.

Corporate worship is a priority in my life. But on Sunday the 25th, I am planning on staying home.

Christmas is a paganized Roman holiday. Actually, Sunday worship came from ancient Rome as well (I know, you'll point out the one little verse in Acts 20:7 that said "On the first day of the week," but remember that the Jewish day begins at sundown and they were probably gathered for the end-of-Sabbath havdallah service, and then Paul preached until midnight... Sunday was a work day for them).

Having said all that, we have stopped celebrating the Christianized Roman pagan festivals and have embraced the Biblical Feasts of Leviticus 23, which all point to the Messiah.

I pastor a small rural church with a normal Sunday morning attendance of about 50. I am planning (weather permitting) to have services on Christmas morning, but the church leadership has yet to make a decision as to whether we will have a Christmas Eve service. For a small church I could see how it might not seem practical to have services if only 1/4 of the congregation was going to be there. In our case that would make a service of only about 13 people including the pastor, accompanists, sound man etc. Yet, we had services last Sunday after getting about 8 inches of snow on Saturday and having some drifts probably around 4 feet deep. Yes, attendance was way down, but I am glad we went ahead with the services.

We will have a Christmas Eve service (which we do every year anyway) and use that in place of our Sunday service this year. The day and time of worship are not sacred. It's important that we celebrate and worship together in authenticity regardless of the day.

Initially, we weren't going to have a Sunday service, but have since changed to a single, simpler service. We already have a Christmas Eve Eve Contemporary service, and 3 different Christmas Eve services, but Sunday was Sunday was Sunday.

We are holding a church service, but it will be unplugged and utilize less volunteers (mainly our lead pastor will preach, worship pastor will lead music, and I (administrator) will make sure other stuff is managed). No children's ministry. Family service. Following the service, we are going to do a serving time at a local retirement home for families to spend with residents.

We discussed canceling or an alternate service and really came to the conclusion that how can you not hold some type of service to recognize/celebrate the coming of Christ to earth. . . especially as we are calling people to follow Christ.

Miriam, I submit that because most modern Christians know little to nothing about the pagan Roman festivals and instead focus on the Incarnation of Messiah in the Nativity on December 25, that effectively the pagan festivals have ceased to exist and what the Church agreed together to do as a witness for Christ over 1500 years ago has succeeded! Actually, after the first Jewish Christians were ejected from the Jewish community because of their faith in Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah and God, in the Church of the early centuries that emerged from that NT community a return to celebration of the OT festivals and participation in Jewish rites (which were fulfilled in Christ) was considered abandonment of Christian faith like that condemned in Hebrews and Galatians. . . . Something to think about, anyway.

I agree with those who think that churches should hold services on Sundays and on the Feast of the Nativity (Christmas) for many of the reasons mentioned--these are special days/dates reserved for corporate worship that have been a historic practice/witness to Christ in the Church throughout most of its history. On the other hand, for those individuals seeking to balance family responsibilities and relationships, I am not in a position to judge their consciences. It may very well in some cases serve Christ's purposes for salvation better for them to be elsewhere at that time. They are His servants, not mine.

Has anyone asked, "What would Jesus do?" We know that He was faithful to attend the synagogue. So if His birthday was on the Sabbath, would He be at home with His family with cake and ice cream and presents OR would He be in the synagogue honoring His faith and His Father? Just a thought.

To have a service on Sunday or not to have a church on Sunday, that is the question. I marvel at all the outrage over the churches that determine not to have a service on Christmas morning. I was under the impression that all churches answer to Christ not to each other.
I suspect that those who are outraged at a church not having their "doors" open on Christmas morning are also opposed to churches who conduct Saturday night services.
What is the difference between a church having a Christmas Eve service and a church that holds Saturday night services? Our legalism preceeds us.
Our church will be having a Christmas Eve service - giving our families an opportunity to worship together as a family and celebrate the birth of our savior. On Sunday we will give our families an opportunity to enjoy some uninterrupted family time - which grows increasingly rare these days.
The church's responsibility is to provide for its people and the community an opportunity to worship. We are also responsible to minister to the individual families in our church. Each church is given the freedom to best determine how both of those can take place.
I applaud the churches that will hold services on Sunday! I also applaud the ones who won't. But I refuse to be held captive to the legalistic expectation of having services on Sunday when generally speaking, those who attend will feel obligated to do so to show their support for the church leadership, while all along noticing how many did not show up.
Let's give each other freedom to chose what is best for our congregations without judgment!

We are having our traditional service on Christmas Eve and having one Sunday morning service only at 10:00 am. We'll do it if have 1000 or 500 or 50. We're not worried about how many will be there. We anticipate that Jesus will be there and we want to worship him. We have several who want to be baptized on Christmas day. It's going to be a celebration for us. I'm not going to worry about what others choose to do.

We are a portable church. So for us, we also had the issue of asking if we were willing to require someone else to be at work on Christmas Day. We appreciate that businesses are closed, so in our case we had to ask: business as usual or a sacred holiday?

We decided on the latter.

I'm with Christy. It's "worship" - comes from the old English word for "worth-ship" - it's when we tell God HE is worthy! We do it every Sunday as a little Easter, to declare in our praises that in Christ's resurrection, the new world has begun. Every Sunday worth-ship service is an in-your-face to the kingdoms of this world. To even think about calling it off for the cultural Christmas-is-about-family is really amazing - I too am shocked. (What about the people who have no family??) Yes, some people will need to make the tender decision to stay home with family members who totally wouldn't understand, but I as the pastor will most certainly be here for anyone who shows up. The 'audience' for worship is God, and I think he enjoys the worship of 5 people, whether or not the stage lights are on. And church plants that can't have the building are special issues. No, it's not a law - but what is the attitude that underpins calling off the service? Our market doesn't want to buy it?

I am a co-pastor of a small congregation, and I believe we are having service due to the need of the people. Meaning we have a congregation whose experience during this season has not been memorable in the past, so we have decided to have service to help heal past hurts and ward off new ones. Along with the fact we are ceebrating the birth of our savior.

We will only be having one service at 10:00 am on Christmas Day rather than our usual 8:30, 9:45 and 11:00 services. But then we also hold a Christmas Eve "Eve" service on the 23rd (catches those who are traveling on the 24th) which is contemporary w/praise band; and two services on Christmas Eve - 7:00 pm family service and 11:00 pm candlelight. I have to attend the Eve Eve service but I bet you will catch me at all four. It is such a magical, Christ time of the year. Merry "Christ"mas to all.