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48% of pastors cite Christmas Eve as biggest holiday event: poll

Nearly half of Protestant pastors say that Christmas Eve is their church’s most attended Christmas event. In contrast, a significant number of pastors drew bigger crowds at events earlier in December, according to a new poll.

Lifeway Research released the results of a poll asking 1,000 Protestant pastors in the United States about attendance at Christmas events hosted by their church. The survey, conducted from Sept. 6–30, found a plurality of respondents (48%) identifying Christmas Eve services as the “most attended Christmas event” at their church. Participants in the survey included either the senior or sole pastor at a church or a minister serving there.

Just 7% of pastors surveyed cited Christmas Day services as their church’s “most attended Christmas event.” Twenty-six percent of pastors pointed to a Christmas-related event in the third week of December as the most popular gathering at their church, followed by 10% who listed an event in the second week of December. Six percent reported the highest level of attendance at an event in the first week of December or earlier, and 5% said their church’s most famous Christmas event occurs in the first week of January.

The survey examined differences in pastors’ responses to Christmas-related events at their church based on the region of the country they live in, the denomination they belong to, the average attendance of their church, and the pastor’s age, ethnicity, gender, and level of educational attainment.

Eighty-four percent of Lutheran pastors said Christmas Eve services are their church’s most attended Christmas event.

Just 7% of Lutheran pastors listed an event occurring in the third week of December as their church’s most well-attended Christmas event. Substantial shares of Pentecostal pastors (45%), pastors affiliated with the Church of Christ (37%), and Baptist pastors (35%) cited such events as the best-attended Christmas gatherings at their churches.

Sixty percent of mainline pastors told pollsters that Christmas Eve services were the most-attended Christmas events at their church, compared to 44% of their Evangelical counterparts. Thirty percent of Evangelical pastors selected an “event the third week of December” as their church’s most-attended Christmas event, while just 17% of mainline pastors did the same.

Similarly, 30% of pastors based in the South reported the highest attendance at an event in the third week of December, while pastors based in the Northeast (19%) and Midwest (12%), as well as those leading churches with less than 50 people (19%), were less likely to do so. With only 39% of pastors living in the South pointing to Christmas Eve services as their church’s most-attended Christmas-related event, pastors in this region were the least likely to have the highest attendance at such services.

Younger pastors were slightly more likely than their older peers to select Christmas Eve services as their church’s most-attended event. Fifty-three percent of pastors between 18 and 44 identified Christmas Eve as the most meaningful event at their church, as opposed to 44% of pastors aged 55-64. Majorities of white pastors also identified their church’s main Christmas event, Christmas Eve services (51%), and those with a master’s degree (58%).

Christmas Eve services were more frequently cited as the main Christmas event by female pastors (55%) than male pastors (46%). Fifty-three percent of pastors of churches with between zero and 49 members selected Christmas Eve services as the most popular event at their church, compared to 44% of pastors leading churches with between 100 and 249 attendees.

Twenty-one percent of pastors affiliated with the Church of Christ selected an event in the first week in January as their church’s most attended Christmas event, making the denomination the most likely to choose an event after Christmas as the unique gathering at their church.

Although sizable shares of Pentecostal (18%) and Baptist pastors (15%) pointed to an event in the second week of December as their church’s biggest Christmastime attendance generator, more enormous proportions of pastors affiliated with the denominations above listed events taking place in the third week of December as the most attended Christmas-related gathering at their church.

Scott McConnell, the executive director of Lifeway Research, addressed the survey results in a statement. “Christians have many Christmas traditions and so do their churches,” he said. “Family and church traditions will probably coincide with Christmas Eve services, but many evangelical churches see the highest holiday attendance earlier in December.”

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