Christmas falls on a Sunday this year, prompting some churches to close for the holiday in expectation of low attendance. More churches nationwide will be closed this year than the last time Christmas and Sunday coincided, according to a poll conducted by Lifeway Research.
Lifeway Research polled 1,000 pastors nationwide about their plans for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services. The evangelical research company found that 16% of pastors were not planning to open for Christmas Day.
“Christmas morning and Sunday morning are sort of in tension with each other,” explained Timothy Beal, a professor of religious studies at Case Western Reserve University.
“Most people who are churchgoers think of Christmas morning not as a religious time but as a family time: stockings and brunches and staying in your pajamas until midday or later,” Beal suggested.
For many pastors, including Laura Bostrom, the pastor at King of Glory Lutheran Church in suburban Denver, the decision to close on Christmas day was pragmatic: Many congregations and staff members will be out of town or with their families on Christmas Sunday.
After holding Christmas Eve service, she did not want “to get home at 9:30 and have everyone wake up and [hold church service] for such low attendance.”
Bostrom is not alone in her decision to forego Christmas Sunday service.
This year’s holiday will see a 5-percentage point increase in the number of churches electing not to hold Christmas Sunday service compared to 2016, the last time Christmas was on a Sunday. In 2016, 11% of churches polled said they would not be open on Christmas.
Lifeway Research Executive Director Scott McConnell noted, “Families have many traditions on Christmas morning, and most pastors acknowledge not as many of their members will be present compared to Christmas Eve and services earlier in the month.”
Nonetheless, he said, “churches not holding services on Christmas Day are still the exception.”
Among the Protestant churches that keep their doors open is Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, North Carolina, led by pastor Kevin DeYoung. He sent a plea to pastors online in 2016, urging others not to close on Christmas Sunday, which he recirculated this year.
“We’ve all heard sermons on ‘Jesus is the reason for the season,'” said DeYoung. He expressed that when churches close on Christmas, they send the message that “Jesus may not be the reason for the season.”
Tom Buck, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Lindale, Texas, similarly added, “There is not one good biblical reason that can be given for canceling church on Christmas Day!”
Of the Protestant pastors polled, 71% said they plan to have service on Christmas Eve, and 84% planned to hold services on Christmas Day; 60% said they intended to open for both. Respondents were permitted to select all answer choices that applied.
In contrast, all Catholic and Christian Orthodox churches are expected to remain open on December 25. Catholics believe that Sunday mass is obligatory regardless of the holiday, while Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7.