Christmas is an ideal time of year for churches to do big outreach events. It is an opportunity to bless the less fortunate in your community and also present the gospel and the true story of the meaning of the season. Here are several ideas of holiday outreach events your church could do. Several of them are very low cost to organize. All you need is some time and a solid group of volunteers to take on most of these.
Place some calls to local tree farms and see if they would be willing to either donate or subsidize the cost as a donation to give you their less-than-perfect trees. Tree farms always have those “Charlie Brown” Christmas trees that they are not able to sell with the rest of the trees they sell to vendors. From there, you can load them into volunteers' trucks and offer them for free to needy families in the neighborhood.
Instead of having your church members buy and wrap presents that are then given to less fortunate families, here is a different way to do something similar: Have all of the donated toys and gifts in a room or series of rooms, and have parents or families come in and “shop” for gifts. Give them a bag or basket and let them pick 5 or 10 items. This gives people the feeling that they are more involved in the process and not just accepting charity. You can then provide them with the gift wrap and tape, and they can wrap their presents at home themselves!
Tons of families are traveling around Christmas time, and parking at the airport or taking an uber can be costly. If your church has access to some 15 passenger vans or large cars, you could coordinate shuttle pick up and drop off services in the days leading up to and after Christmas. Have volunteers sign up in advance to be drivers during different time slots.
Sometimes, parents just need a little free time to go out and go shopping for the kids and wrap everything without prying eyes. Offering childcare for an evening where parents can go out together and have a few hours for themselves to take care of errands can be a big help and blessing!
The holidays are a great opportunity to spend some time at your local nursing home. Just taking 30 minutes to paint nails, play board games, or just chat with elderly residents can brighten up their Christmas season more than words can express. A lot of people might not have family in the area, and just spending a little bit of time with them showing Christ’s love will make a big difference!
Who doesn’t love hot chocolate or apple cider? Get a group together and hand out cups of hot chocolate at a large local event. Maybe it’s a Christmas tree lighting ceremony or an annual parade. This is a great chance to meet people in your community, and it's an introduction opportunity to give them an invitation to your annual Christmas eve service!
The Christmas season is always an amazing opportunity to reach your local community. It also highlights the importance of sharing your time just as much as any other resource you might have available.
What are some great holiday outreach events you have seen done in the past?