This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission from purchased products at no additional cost to you. See my full disclosure here.
Christmas caroling is a great way for your small church to reach your local neighborhoods during the holidays.
Do you ever wonder how your small church Christmas tradition or event can impact your community with God’s love? Christmas caroling is a great way to reach out to your community during the holidays. Now let’s bump up that activity by adding some fun elements and new twists. What you have is an event that incorporates friends and neighbors into your outreach, as well as builds connections within your small church family.
We asked for holiday ideas on our Facebook community thread and many of you shared how you use caroling as a wonderful outreach! We compiled them here and added a few of our own.
These kinds of activities are perfect opportunities to invite your unchurched friends to participate. There is no pre-requisite or membership needed to sing carols to others! Many people, even unchurched people, feel one of the best ways to spread holiday cheer is by volunteering and giving back to those in need.
As you are caroling you bring a smile to some folks in your neighborhood, perhaps someone who is lonely or feeling forgotten. Caroling events encourage people of all age groups to serve side by side.
Caroling events are an excellent way to build connections with those who join in your caroling event!
Fun Small Church Christmas Caroling Ideas
Try Hayride Caroling In Rural Areas
Denise Rodrigues’ small church starts planning their event a month ahead. No one wants to be left out of this fun family tradition. They gather at the church and then pile on a Hay Wagon to participate in a Hay Ride Caroling Event!
People of all ages climb aboard and sing Christmas carols, shake sleigh bells, and travel around their rural town. They stop at homes and sing, plus hand out invitations to the community for their Christmas services. At the end of the evening, they return to the church for cocoa and cookies, along with some wonderful fellowship!
If you don’t have the ability to have a hayride, that’s okay. Get the leadership at your small church together and brainstorm about how this kind of event could work in your area.
- Ride on a firetruck if you are in a rural area
- Go caroling on a boat in your canal or nearby lake for those living along a lake shore or coastal community
- Dress in Victorian garb and sing through the shopping areas of your town
God can use you right in the place He has you!!
Sing Christmas Carols At The City Dock
This is a great outreach strategy. Use a central location people in your town know about for your Christmas caroling. Michael & Amy Sims’ small church hosts a community Christmas Carol Sing at the city dock. They all bundle up and hope the city’s heaters under the pavilion are turned on! They sing Christmas Carols. One of the pastors reads The Christmas Story from scripture and has a quick gospel presentation. Just for fun, there’s usually at least one snowball thrown somewhere. Now that’s true small church fellowship!
A Christmas Concert With A Local Band
Kelly Dowd Fitzpatrick’s small church hosts a Christmas concert with a local band as the entertainment. The community enjoys it. It is a great connection point to the band and the people in the neighborhood. This event provides a wonderful holiday event for people of all ages.
How can your small church host a Christmas concert and carol sing-along?
- Find talent within your congregation
- Invite a local band or a high school group to provide the music for your concert
- Partner with other churches in town
- Host the concert outside at a public venue or a park, weather permitting
- Ask members of all the churches participating to help provide refreshments and hot beverages
Offer A “Lessons & Carols” Service
Sarah McColley Harlow’s church annually presents the traditional “Lessons and Carols” Service just before Christmas. It tells the story of creation, the fall of man, Jesus, and our redemption through nine scripture readings and the singing of traditional Christmas carols.
After the service, Sarah’s church serves cookies and punch for a wonderful time of fellowship, connecting with those you may not know and celebrating the holiday season together.
Sarah suggests considering doing this service with more of a family atmosphere and hosting interactive stations for each of the nine sections. Call everyone together after they go through the stations and have a time of singing and a short message from the pastor.
One year, the women’s ministry at Sarah’s church made ornaments with printed Christmas verses and handed them out to all of the guests of the Lessons and Carols Service. It made a lovely take-home memory to put on their tree.
If your women’s ministry doesn’t make ornaments, use this idea at an interactive station, such as Sarah suggested.
If the women in your small church love to do crafts together, consider hosting a Christmas Crafts Outreach.
Small Churches Deliver Cookies With Christmas Carols
Gather members of all ages/stages to go out on the Christmas Carol trail. Visit shut-ins or widows from your church, go to a senior center or nursing home, and sing at the local Fire or police station, while delivering a cookie plate to say thank you. These are intergenerational events to promote relationship-building within your small church.
Cookies & Caroling In Golf Carts
Karis Jorden’s small church hosts an event, Cookies, and Caroling. Cookies And Caroling is a great way for the church to introduce themselves to their town! All ages get involved.
The people in church make Christmas cookies to bring to the event. They even have a cookie-making and decorating gathering at the church, a week before the event to add a time of fun and fellowship for this event!
On the day of the event, members meet at the church to package cookies. Then they split into small caroling groups to visit the homes in the neighborhoods surrounding the church. Some groups use golf carts to carry the cookies and lead the way throughout the neighborhoods. They decorate the golf carts and UTVs with Christmas lights, garlands, and other elements. What a festive way to announce your arrival!
The event is well attended by their church family and is well received by their community.
Church Hosts Cookies, Carols & Cocoa
Cookies, Carols, and Cocoa is the annual event Kelly Dowd Fitzpatrick’s church hosts. They bring Christmas cheer to people who may not have much joy during the holidays. They perform at a local boys’ home, an assisted living center, and different shut-in homes in the community.
Follow this example to show Christ’s love! After they finish, the group returns to the church for cookies, and coco, and taking pictures to capture the memories.
Those Glorious Songs Of Old!
Take those traditional Christmas carols of old and use them to share the message of Christ!
Colossians 3:16a (NIV) tells us, “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”
Look at this verse. We have the message of Christ with us and teach each other as we share the truth of Christmas through carols and songs. As we gather together as a family of God, and we do it with gratitude in our hearts, reflecting on the wonderful truth of Christmas, we can’t help but experience the love of Christ in our hearts!
We pray the Lord would give your small church inspiration to use your tradition of caroling with perhaps a new twist so you can reach out to your community and build your church family up in the joy of Christ and Christmas!
Looking for something fresh and new for the holiday season?
Check out the Blue Christmas Pack & the Advent Worship Pack!
Read More:
A Blue Christmas Service Makes Space For Healing & Hope During The Holidays
4 Fun Mix & Match Elements To Create The Perfect Christmas Party
Tips To Include Children With Special Needs In Christmas Activities
I was wondering if you have any more information on the “Lessons and Carols” Service. Is there an outline available, or list of scriptures and carols used? It sounds like an intriguing service. Thank you for your response!
Hello! Thanks for your interest!! I’ve sent your question to the author of our post! We’ll see if she has more to share ❤️
As someone planning for Christmas still, was there any guidance from the source on the caroling lessons?
Hi Christina! I’ll try to reach out to the author and get a response for you!
Christina, these ideas were collected in our free Facebook group. The woman who posted the thread and whose church does this every year is Sarah McColley Harlow. If you message her in our Facebook group, she would probably be happy to share. Come join us in Creative Solutions For Small Churches!
thanks for reading!