Church Christmas marketing starts with one page: your Christmas Eve page

Every pastor knows Christmas Eve brings in people you don't see the rest of the year. A neighbor's parents in town for the week. A couple who hasn't been to church since college. Someone who just wants to sing Silent Night by candlelight again. Most of them will look you up first, on their phone, and the page they land on is your church Christmas Eve page. If you're thinking about church Christmas marketing at all this year, that one page is where I'd start.

I grew up in a church planter's home and I've pastored a small church, so I know how December goes. The bulletin, the rehearsals, the candles, the extra chairs. The website is usually the last thing anyone thinks about, and the Christmas times go up on the home page around December 20th. By then a lot of families have already made their plans.

Why your Christmas Eve page should go up in November

People decide where they're going on Christmas Eve earlier than we think. Families coordinate with relatives, and visitors from out of town ask "where are we going to church this year?" well before the week of Christmas.

There's a search reason too. Google needs time to find a new page and decide what it's about. A page that goes up on December 20th has a few days to be found. A page that goes up in early November has seven weeks.

So my rule of thumb is simple. Decide your service times in October, and have the page live by mid November, even if a few details still say "more coming soon."

What to put on your church Christmas Eve page

A Christmas Eve guest has the same questions as any first-time guest, plus a few that only come up in December. Here's what I'd put on the page, roughly in this order:

• Every service time, with the date spelled out. "Thursday, December 24 at 4:00 and 6:00 PM" is clearer than "Christmas Eve services at 4 & 6."
• What each service is like. If the 4:00 is family friendly and the 6:00 is quieter with candlelight, say so. Parents of little ones will pick the right one.
• How long it runs. "About an hour" helps people plan dinner.
• Kids. Is there childcare, or are kids in the service with their families? Either is fine. Just say which.
• The address and parking, with a map link that opens on a phone. If the lot fills up on Christmas Eve, tell people where the overflow is and suggest arriving a little early.
• A livestream link, if you stream, for the grandparents who can't travel.
• One real photo from last year's service, if you have one.
• A short, honest welcome. One or two sentences that tell a stranger they're wanted.

That's it. Resist the urge to add the whole Advent calendar, the choir schedule and the volunteer signup. Put those on their own pages and link to them if you need to.

What the top of a good one looks like

Here's an example of how I'd write the first screen of the page for a made up church with two services. Swap in your own details:

"Christmas Eve at Grace Church. Thursday, December 24. 4:00 PM, a family service with kids in the room, about 45 minutes. 6:00 PM, carols and candlelight, about an hour. Come as you are. We'd be glad to have you."

Notice what that does. In about five seconds, a guest knows the day, the times, which service fits their family and how long they'll be there. Everything else on the page is there for the people who scroll.

If you already have a plan a visit page, this is the same idea, built for one night. I wrote about what to put on a church plan a visit page, and almost all of it applies here too.

Use the same address every year

This one is small, and most churches miss it. Give the page a simple address like yourchurch.org/christmas and keep it every year.

When you make a new page each December, at a new address like /christmas-2026, you start from zero with Google every time. When you keep one address and update the details each fall, the page builds history. Links people shared last year still work. And when someone types your church name and "Christmas" into Google, there's one clear answer.

In January, don't delete it. Change it to say something like "Thanks for joining us for Christmas. Here's what's next," with your next sermon series or your Sunday times. Then update it again next October.

Make sure Google shows the right times

Your website isn't the only place people will look. A lot of them will search "Christmas Eve service near me," tap your listing on Google Maps and never open your site at all. A few things to check before December:

Set special hours on your Google Business Profile for December 24 and 25. Google lets you add holiday hours without changing your regular Sunday times, and it's the difference between a listing that says "Closed" on Christmas Eve and one that shows your services.

Add an event post to your Business Profile with the times and a link to your Christmas page. It takes five minutes.

Put a banner or a big button on your home page from mid November through Christmas that goes straight to the Christmas page. Don't make anyone hunt for it.

If your church has the Google Ad Grant, Christmas Eve is one of the best weeks of the year to use it. People are searching for exactly what you're offering, and the grant pays for the ads. I've written a complete guide to the Google Ad Grant for churches if you don't have it yet. Applying takes a while, so October is a good time to start.

Then plan for December 26th

Here's the part I care about most. Christmas Eve isn't the finish line. Someone who came on the 24th and had a good night is open to coming back, maybe more than at any other time of the year.

So give them a reason and a date. On the Christmas page, in the welcome at the service and in any follow up email, point to one thing: the first Sunday in January, a new series, a starting point for people who are new. Keep it to one thing. A list of ten options gets ignored.

And if anyone filled out a connect card, follow up that week, while the night is still fresh.

One page, done early

You don't need a big Christmas marketing plan. You need one clear page with the right times, up early, at an address that stays put, and a Google listing that matches it. Do that in the next few weeks, and the people looking for a church this Christmas will find yours.

If you'd like a second set of eyes on your Christmas page, or help applying for the Ad Grant and using it well this Christmas, you can book a time to talk with me. Grace and peace to you and your church this Advent.

Photo by Miff Ibra on Pexels.