The Christmas season provides many opportunities for your church to bring together families, foster connections, and reach your community. However, creating an event that accommodates everyone—from children to seniors—requires thoughtful planning.
Here are a few tips to ensure your Christmas events are family-friendly, intentional, and aligned with your church’s mission.
Plan For Families of All Ages
To truly create a family-friendly environment, it’s essential to consider the diverse needs of different age groups. Begin by designing specific spaces and activities for children, teens, adults, and seniors. A few examples include:
- Offer childcare for babies and toddlers so parents can better engage and participate.
- Provide crafts, games, or activities designed to keep children entertained.
- Consider creating a specific student area where teens and older youth can gather to eat or hang out.
- Think through generational preferences and needs by identifying the interests of young adults, median adults, and senior adults. Then, incorporate these into your programming.
Remember, not everything will appeal to everyone and that’s okay. However, offering variety and planning for all ages will help to ensure your Christmas event is family-friendly.
Encourage Preregistration for New Families
Another great way to host a family-friendly event at your church is to encourage new visitors to preregister their families. When families preregister, ask for information like:
- Names and ages of each family member
- Contact information
- Dietary needs/preferences
- Church membership
- Additional information
Once you have this information, your team will better know how to prepare, allocate resources, and meet specific requests. Plus, having their contact information will allow you to send out information ahead of time and better follow up after the event.
Create A Welcoming Atmosphere
Next, it’s important to consider the atmosphere when hosting a family-friendly event. The goal is to make it welcoming and comfortable for everyone. Think through details like seating for those who may need it and open areas for families of young children who need extra space to run around.
Also, since it’s the Christmas season, work to incorporate traditional Christmas decorations like trees, lights, and nativity sets to make it feel cozy, welcoming, and fun.
Organize Age-Appropriate Content
To appeal to a multi-generational audience, it’s important to organize age-appropriate content. This may look like having different parts of the event that cater to different audiences. For example, include a children’s sermon or sing an old hymn. Or, it may look like hosting different activities for different age groups. Children could do crafts or attend a storytelling night while adults attend a nice Christmas-themed dinner.
There are countless options, but knowing your audience and curating content for each age group will help to ensure everyone feels connected, seen, and has an enjoyable time.
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Think Through Safety And Accessibility
Safety and accessibility should be top priorities when planning family-friendly events of any nature.
For children, think through details like:
- Check-in procedures
- Allergy notifications
- Security
- First-aid or emergency procedures
- Childcare training
- Pick up procedures
For senior adults and those with special needs think about:
- Ramps
- Clear signage
- Seating options
- Emergency procedures
- Sound and assistive listening devices or interpreters
In both cases, ensure safety procedures are well thought-through and communicated so families feel comfortable and safe.
Provide Refreshments For Everyone
Lastly, consider how your church can provide refreshments for everyone at your Christmas event. As you think through dietary needs and preferences, be sure to include options like vegetarian, gluten-free, nut-free, and allergy-friendly snacks. Also, share what will be offered ahead of time so people can make other plans if needed.
Keep in mind, you don’t have to provide a full meal to have a fun Christmas event. Even providing light refreshments can help to create a fun environment and experience for families. Examples include cookies or gingerbread men, a hot chocolate and coffee bar, charcuterie boards, or even just simple finger foods.
Next Steps
Hosting a family-friendly Christmas event at your church helps people to feel valued, included, and welcome. While it does require planning and thought, these events often foster connections and create impacts that reach far beyond the event itself.
As you plan, consider how church management software can simplify your event planning. Using a ChMS, you can collect registrations, automate communication, delegate tasks, check in children, and even simplify follow-up. If you’re ready to get started, try a demo of Ministry Brands Amplify and you could have everything up and running before the holidays!
