Another church did my 4 month personal evangelism coaching process for their team and within a few months had baptized some new believers as a result of that intentional focus.

What is your church’s evangelism strategy for 2012?

People often complain about lack of time when the lack of direction is the real problem.
- Zig Ziglar

Most of us know this true.  If we don’t plan ahead, we will miss the opportunities that present themselves.

Prayer is a great place to start.  Ask God:

• What does this year look like for your church in the area of evangelism?
• What is God calling your church to do to express the expansion of the kingdom of God in your particular locale?
• What particular programmatic expressions is God calling your church to do?

Evangelism Strategy Webinar for 2012

In this complimentary webinar, I’ll share with you 3 major areas of evangelism training for your congregation to help you develop your evangelism strategy for 2012.

Among other things you’ll lean:

• 3 areas of focus for congregational evangelism to start your planning
• 6 different evangelism styles to match the right program for your congregation for personal evangelism
• how one church implemented a personal evangelism strategy and baptized 3 new believers in 6 months.
• Possible action steps in each of 3 areas to get started right away.
• Find dedicated champions of evangelism to develop your team
• how hospitality ministry can lead to new baptisms.

Register online for this webinar

Registration is Free, but required.

BONUS:

PDF’s will be available after the webinar.

Register on line :

Date doesn’t work for you?

To get the replay, you’ll still need to register.

Replays are free for one week hours after the event, but only to those who register.

To be automatically informed as to our next webinar, sign up for our Free Evangelism Newsletter and the a 5 part course on Church Hospitality.

Help Us Promote this Webinar:

Use the bookmark features to promote on Twitter or Share this link on Facebook.

Include a link to this page in your emails and blog postings.

I interview Kevin Cunningham, outreach pastor of a church in Nashua New Hampshire, a town of about 80,000.

Christmas Outreach

Each year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the city turns Main Street into a walking district.

Close to 30,000 people from across New England visit downtown Nashua to officially kick-off the Christmas season.

The evening starts with a procession from City Hall to Railroad Square where the City’s official Christmas tree is lit.

Much of the downtown is closed to traffic for the evening, allowing strollers to enjoy the live entertainment, sample offerings from street vendors, dine in downtown’s fine restaurants and do holiday shopping at specialty shops and boutiques.

Promoting Special Christmas Events

This church used this event to promote two Christmas activities.

• Group’s A Night in Bethlehem—converting our church grounds into a first-century experience of what Bethlehem must have looked like on the first Christmas.
• Our Christmas Eve service—that will feature a lot of drama vignettes, special music and group carol singing.

Conversation Starters

Kevin also shares what was on their table as giveaways.  Click on the images to see larger versions of the Business Cards they gave away.

1. Bibles
2. New Testaments
3. Business card-sized invites to our Christmas activities
4. Booklets (from Outreach Marketing) with the Christmas Story and a message for non Christ-followers that presented the Gospel and a message for believers who are not in fellowship.
5. Gary Rohrmayer’s Your Spiritual Journey pamphlets (Read my review of Spiritual Conversations)
6. CDs from a Marriage Event with authors and speakers Drs. Paul & Virginia Friesen on how to “Be Part of a Great Marriage.”
7. Candy Canes

Intentional Conversations about Faith

Besides marketing the Christmas activities, the volunteer team was also intentional about faith sharing conversations.  Make sure you listen in to see how they held normal conversations during this Christmas outreach.

Read 7 Habits for Highly Effective Personal Evangelism to get a feel for what this might look like.

They included

• a parent needing help raising a middle schooler and looking for a church with a good youth group.
• A couple planning to get married and looking for a church
• A number of people who had drifted away from church over the years and sensing the need to get back on track.
• Some were believers—others from a ritualistic background and looking for something more meaningful.

Showing Church Hospitality to First Time Visitors

About midway through the interview with Kevin, we talk about hospitality issues:

• How did you prepare your volunteers for this table?
• How are you preparing your hospitality and church member to receive them and make intentional connections?
• Plans are you making to help your first time visitors return after the events are over

What would you do differently?

Finally, Kevin shares some practical principles he learned doing this kind of outreach and the one thing he would do differently.

• Find areas or events that already exist in your area where you can generate interest.
• Don’t say no for people.  Even though our town’s event is called the “Winter Holiday Stroll” they included a section for non-profits that we were able to take advantage of.
• Start early.  Our application had to be filed by mid-September.

Podcast of Christmas Outreach

The images refer to an Easter service, but you get the idea.

Details are below.

With social networking site Facebook, your church can take this same concept online by creating a Facebook event for Christmas.  People in your church who use Facebook can then easily invite their Facebook friends to Christmas services using this Facebook Event.

Here’s how to do it.

Before you begin…
First you need to have a Facebook page (or group) for your church.  I recommend you have a Facebook page for your church.  The steps below describe how to create an event from your FB page.

By default there should be an “Events” section on the left side of the FB page.  Click the “Create Events.”

Oddly, on the FB page for my church which recently created another FB event there was no link to create a new event.  I had to go the to the “Wall… Info… Photos” tabs towards the top, click the + sign to add a tab for events, click that tab, and then click the “+ Create Event” button on the right side.  Very cumbersome.

Step 1: Event Info

That will take you to the “Step 1: Event Info” form.  Fill in the event name and optional tagline.  The event type is awkward.

It’s a required field in the form, but there is no good fits for worship services.  “Causes” doesn’t have any adequate sub-categories.  Neither does “Music/Arts.”  “Other” seems like a good option, until you see that none of the sub-categories there fit either.

I think the categories are only used by other people searching for events, and since the vast majority of people find out about FB events through an invitation from their friends the categories are really irrelevant.

Moving on to the description, I would strongly recommend your church have an official description for every event so that the description is the same on the website, the bulletin/program, and Facebook.  Because FB Events only gives one start and one end time, if you have multiple Christmas services include the times of those services in the description.

The rest of the Event info should be self-explanatory.

Step 2: Customize

This form starts with the option to add a picture.  I strongly recommend you do this.  As with the description, if there is an official Christmas logo/graphic your church is using on the website and program/bulletin, it’s best to use it in the Facebook event.

Next there are a bunch of options.  I recommend enabling everything.  It’s unlikely that many people will post photos, videos, or links, but that can only enhance the event.  Click the save button at the bottom of the page if you make any changes to the default option settings.

Step 3: Update Fans

If you click the “Finish and View” option, it will skip over one of the most important steps, getting the word out to “fans” of your church’s Facebook page.  To do that, from the Event page click the “Update Fans of [your church]” link on the right side.

There are two important things you can accomplish by updating your “fans.”  First and most obvious, you are getting a reminder out to them to participate in your Christmas services.

Second and equally important, you can encourage them to invite their Facebook friends to the Christmas services and give them instructions on how to do that.  So, here’s the update I sent to “fans” of my church (Cypress Meadows Community Church)

Subject: Invite your Friends to Easter at Cypress

Hi Everyone!

As you know this Sunday is Easter, we hope you and your family will join us as we celebrate our risen Savior, Jesus Christ!

Easter is one of the 2 times of the year people who do not know Jesus or are not connected with a church are most open to attending a service.  So, we’ve created this Facebook event to make it easy for you to invite your Facebook friends to Easter services at Cypress Meadows.

Just click the link below to the Easter Services event.  Then click “Invite People to Come” on the top right of the event page.  It couldn’t be easier!  Invite your friends so they can experience the amazing love God has for us!

Update the Page Status

Another way to make “fans” aware of the Facebook event and the opportunity it provides to invite friends is to update your church’s FB page status.

Go to your church’s FB page.

In the box labeled “Write something…” enter something like:

is getting ready to celebrate Christmas. Invite your Facebook friends using this Facebook event – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=63598044471

This message will show up in your “fans” news feed.

It will also appear at the top of your church’s Facebook page.

Of course, change the actual link to the one on your page

Take the Initiative – Invite Your Friends

Last but not least, lead by example.  If you are encouraging people to invite their friends to Christmas services using the Facebook event, be the first to do so and invite your friends.

I would suggest inviting all your FB friends who are already a part of your church.  But more importantly, I would suggest inviting some of your FB friends who are not a part of your church.  After all, that is what this is all about.

Let me ask you this?

Have you created a Facebook event for your church’s Christmas services?  If so post a link here.

Got any other ideas for ways to use Facebook to promote or invite people to Christmas services?

The Easter version of the above article appears at OurChurch.com. The principles are the same.

Paul is a great guy to follow on Twitter and he sends out great newsletters.

Paul Steinbrueck is co-founder and CEO of OurChurch.Com, elder of CypressMeadows.org, husband, father of 3, blogger. You can follow him on Twitter at@PaulSteinbrueck

Here is a sample Christmas Party ice breaker and conversational guide that is similar to the one found on page 38 of Christmas Party Games from Creative Youth Ideas.

You can use this icebreaker as a Christmas party game for adults, for youth, and for kids.

You can probably find this party game for Christmas everywhere on the Internet but what I like is the discussion applications to help break the ice for some great faith oriented conversations over the eggnog or punch.

Christmas Party IceBreaker

Name of Party Game: Christmas Forward and Backward.

When I played variations of this Christmas Party game during other seasons, I called it Move to the Left or Right.

Energy level of Christmas Party Game: Low, using chairs in a line.

How to play: Move forward or backward depending on the criteria that is called.

If someone is already occupying that chair, sit on their lap.

Example criteria:

• Move forward if you are wearing green.
• If you like eggnog, move forward one chair
• If you plan to go to church on Christmas eve, move back one chair.

The actual resource of Christmas Party Games for Youth (read my review of Christmas Collection from Creative Youth Ideas) suggests 30 different criteria for this Christmas party game.  That should be enough to stir your creativity for more.

Discussion starters

As a talking point, you can talk about moving forward or moving backward in life.

As you think about your relationships this past year, have you moved forward or backwards?

As you think about your spiritual life, have you moved forward or backwards?

Did you reach any goals you may have had at the beginning of the year for your spiritual life?

Then you can ask this an application:

Take a few moments to plan where you want to be spiritually at the end of next year.

• In relationships?
• In your education?
• In your career?
• In some personal goals?
• In your relationship to God?

This party game for Christmas can be a great ice breaker to start future conversations later over that bowl of eggnog.

Your guests might volunteer with you 1-1 where they would like to grow spiritually later that year.

Read more about the  resource of Christmas Party Games for Youth.

To sandbag your Christmas party guests is to unexpectedly thrust your guests into a socially awkward or highly uncomfortable situation where they are unable to escape, metaphorically speaking.

How we were sandbagged

This happened to us on a Disney vacation, but the same could happen at your evangelistic Christmas party if you are not careful

The offer: We were offered two free park tickets if we attended a continental breakfast.

The hidden agenda: We had to endure a 3 hour presentation on timeshares.  We couldn’t leave.

The result: Highly frustrated sales people, angry customers, and us feeling trapped and victimized.

How to mess up a Christmas Party

Some Christians plan Christmas parties with a hidden agenda.

They invite their friends and neighbors and then sandbag their guests with an unexpected lecture on Jesus.

The food and friendship is all going well.  People are relating and connecting.

Then the host gathers people into a room and starts to lecture them on the need for Jesus.

It’s out of the blue and unexpected.

Some guests are thinking “Is this why I’m here, to be told I need Jesus?”

Is there a better way to do evangelism at a Christmas party?

One way to avoid this situation is to be clear in your invitations to the Christmas party.  Set an expectation ahead of time:

Mention that you’ll be sharing a little about your faith and why Christmas is important to you.  Be clear that it’s a personal story and that it will be brief.

This sets an expectation in the mind of your Christmas party guest that there will be some no-pressure faith sharing happening.

You might have some ice-breakers that touch on spiritual themes (next post).

You might have people share meaningful Christmas traditions.

You might share one short aspect of your testimony when you have the group’s attention (after all, you said you would in your Christmas party invitations).

When it’s time to speak to your group, gather them around you with

“As I mentioned in the invitation to each of you, I wanted to take a few moments to share why Christmas is important to us.  I won’t too share much, and I won’t put pressure on any of you, but I simply want to share how my life is different because of Jesus.”

Then share a piece of your personal testimony.

Invite those who want to know more to talk with you one on one after your presentation as the party resumes.

This low key approach still accomplishes some evangelistic activity of sharing some of the gospel and some of your personal testimony.  The key is that it was expected at the Christmas party because you mentioned it in your invitation.

Do you need church Christmas Party Game Ideas?

Read my review of a resource of Christmas party games, some of which have spiritual conversation starters.

• Christmas Party Icebreaker to Start Spiritual Conversations
• Creative Youth Group Game Ideas for Christmas

I want to give you 5 areas to consider improving your church welcome for your first time visitors when the come this Christmas Season.

1.  Train Greeters

Greeters can provide a warm handshake, helpful information and walk a guest to classes or the sanctuary if needed.

Greeting is more than just a hello.  It is a first impression.

I’ve got some free church greeter training videos here.

Or, purchase this DVD or Download video done in September 2011 to train greeters as a refresher.

Why is this important? Read these tweets and you get the idea.

Greeter at church- “How’s college? Have they kicked you out yet?” Not sure what this says about me.  –Twitter User

The greeter at church always flirts with me………uncomfortable!! — Twitter User

Way to go folks. Brought a visitor to church. Overheard “well that ain’t no way to dress for church.” — Twitter User

2. Cast a Hospitality Vision

Being friendly to your church visitor means that the church family is listening, inviting, encouraging, and caring.

Help your church get that vision for hospitality by casting it  when you can in sermons, meetings, and Sunday school classes. (Audio download from the store).

Church Visitors should be greeted by someone around them, not just the greeter at the door.

Particularly the lonely ones who may be away from family this time of year.

3. Church Visitors Welcome Packet.

Prepare Welcome Packets for your guest.

Read How to Prepare a welcome packet, perpetually one of the 10 ten articles on this website each year.

Include current information on upcoming programs and an invitation to meet with the pastor.

4.  Have a reception after the service.

Have a coffee/snack reception after the service.

This allows time for

• conversations with your church visitors to occur,
• for prayer to happen, and
• for your guests to meet with the pastors.

Beverages:

Make the coffee fresh and of appropriate strength. It shouldn’t be reheated from last night’s fellowship event nor should it be so weak as to taste like colored water.

While it doesn’t take a lot of skill to make coffee, making it right is the challenge.  Coffee drinkers know a good cup of coffee, and a bad cup will leave a bad taste.

Don’t forget to make enough – sometimes the pot gets drained before visitors have had a chance to get to the urn.

Offer alternatives such as teas, juice, ice cold water. If you choose to use bottled water, offer a recycle container for empty bottles.

Food:

Whatever snack items are offered, make sure they are fresh.

Stale sweets, or frozen items that had been thawed simply taste cheap and do not make a great first impression.

Consider common food allergies and either avoid those (like nuts) or provide an appropriate sign.

In our health conscious time, provide healthy options for those that don’t want sugary cookies or sticky sweets.

5.  Post visit Welcome Letter

Assuming you got church visitor contact information during the worship service, you’ll want to send them a nice follow up letter.

Be sure to include an invitation to return to the next worship service, as well as some upcoming event or service.

Don’t bother with “we are here to serve you, if you need anything.”

Instead, invite them to join you on a mission or upcoming event.

For example, “We believe in serving our neighborhood and being the best church for the community.  This month on [date] we’re going to serve the homeless and invite you to join us on that mission.”

Next steps

What are some areas that you would add?

Please share them in the comments below.

• Some are out of town guests.
• Other church visitors seek out the Christmas traditions of their youth.
• Others are awakening to their spiritual thirst.

Churches have special activities that are geared at increasing the number of personal invitations that members give.

While your attendance may swell at Christmas time, the critical question is

• How can you get your church visitors to come back after visiting your church this Christmas season?

Here are four factors to keep in mind.

1. A excellent and meaningful Christmas worship experience.

Make sure all your Christmas season events and worship services are done with excellence and quality.

Don’t let sloppiness or a lacksidasical attitude hinder your visitors experience of the Christmas season.

Think about your worship experiences and ask “Is this helping our visitors and members experience God and hear God’s truth?”

If a visitor doesn’t have a sense of encountering God during their visit, it’s highly unlikely they will return.  Instead, they’ll simply wonder “What’s the point of that?”

2.  Well done hospitality that reflects Christmas cheer.

Remove the unnecessary barriers to a return visit.

• Make sure your greeters are smiling at Christmas.   Read 10 Tips for Greeters.
• Make sure your facility is cleaned up and well decorated.
• Make sure your processes of getting from parking lot to pew are frictionless.
• Make sure your bulletins are easy to follow.

And most of all, make sure your members people say hello to the visitors.

There is lots of other information on this website about church hospitality.

Create the best experience possible at Christmas.

You can’t make a long term influence for Christ on a church visitor if they don’t come back to your church.

3.  Use the Advent time build momentum for your January sermon series.

The four weeks of advent is also a great time to start promoting your post Christmas sermon series.

Pick a topic that is relevant to life.

Do a six week  sermon series connected with the launch of new small groups.

These are great avenues to invite people back to church after the Christmas season is over.

Small groups allow for relationships to form, which increases the possibility your visitor will become a regular attender.

4.  Get visitor contact information.

There are many ways to get contact information.

I recommend the use of contact cards.   (Read and listen: How to Get Church Visitor Contact Information).  In our congregation, we are small enough to recognize first time vistiors. We hand them first time visitor cards.

Drop a note or Christmas card in the mail.

Invite them to other Christmas specials.  Remind your visitors they can bring a friend.

Also, use the card to remind your church visitors of the upcoming January series.

Even drop a little gift in the mail like a $5 gift card or gas card.

Some churches still make a personal visit within 24-48 hours.

Find ways to show honor to your visitor and invite them to return for January’s sermon series.

You can’t follow up if you don’t get any contact information.

Let me ask you this?

What specifically are you doing to be intentional about inviting your church visitors to return after Christmas?

Please share in the comments below.

Maybe they just stopped coming and your not sure why.

Christmas events at your church provide you with an excellent opportunity to reach out to these inactive members once again.

Here is how you can do this.

1.  Look over your list of inactive people.

These could be regular attenders who have stopped coming to church, or a more formal category in your membership rolls.

For example, the membership rolls of the Presbyterian Church (USA) includes a category of “Inactive members.”

Look specifically for those who haven’t been 6 weeks or more in the last 6 months.

2. Identify those that could potentially return.

Some of these people have already shared reasons for dropping out of your church.

• They’ve moved out of town.
• They’ve started attending somewhere else and making new friends.
• They realize your congregation wasn’t a fit for them.
• They had a painful conflict with someone that hasn’t been resolved.

They have moved on.

But there will be some people whom you have not heard from, nor do you know their reason for their prolonged absence.

These are the people you want to make an effort to reconnect.

3.  Send them a handwritten personal invitation.

Hand write a note and invite them to attend one of your Christmas celebrations.

At least in the US, the mail system is still pretty good at delivering mail.

A hand written note from a member, or from the pastor, can communicate a lot of pastoral care.

In other countries that may not have a developed mail system (like certain ones in Latin America), find some other way to make that personal invitation.

• Maybe a personal email, text message, or blackberry message.
• Maybe a personal phone call.

In other words, make this form of contact highly personal to the people you want to reconnect.   Don’t send a bulk email to everyone.

Customize it and personalize it.

Invite them to celebrate Christmas with your church family.  It might be that special musical production.  It might be for that Christmas Eve service.

Pick something in your Christmas celebrations to make your invitation.

4.  Pray for the results.

Before you send out the letters, and while you are waiting for a response, spend time in prayer.

Pray for the families you are inviting.

Pray that the Lord would show you and your team how to minister to any need they may have.

Ask the Lord to give you eyes to see their need and see how to potentially help make new connections with new friends.

Each person is unique

People have their reasons for dropping out of your church.

Christmas is a great time to re-invite them to connect and a chance to perhaps start a new relationship with them.

It’s a time to bring healing, a time to make ammends, and a time to start over.

How you minister to people who do return is dependent on how the Lord leads you all.

But at least use the Christmas season to make a step towards inviting people to come back to your church.

If you are having special events at Christmas to attract new church visitors, ask yourself these questions while at your church website:

• What time is your Christmas Eve Service?
• What should I expect on Christmas Eve?
• Is there childcare at the Christmas musical?
• Are there photos of congregational life that show people?
• Is there quick access to directions to your facility? (How many clicks to get directions?)
• What does the building look like so I can recognize it?
• Would I fit in with these people?
• Who is the pastor?

Example of our attempt to find a Christmas Eve service

Over Christmas one year, my family visited relatives.

We wanted to attend a Christmas Eve service in a near by church.

Our friends in the area recommended a Presbyterian church about 5 miles from where we were staying.

Step 1.  We Googled the full name of the Church.

Funny thing is, they didn’t show up #1, even though their name is somewhat unique.

They showed up #3.

For their exact name, a similar but different name church showed up #1.

This is an easy fix.

In their webpage, they didn’t include the name of the church in their meta tags for description or keywords.  They used generic words like “church, christian, fellowship, worship, worship services, praise and worship.”

They could have used their church name, as well as their tribe, and town in these descriptions.

Their name is unique enough that they could have used their church name as their domain name.

Use can use your church name as alternate descriptions in some of your photos as well.

Step 2.  We looked at the home page for Christmas Eve Services.

When we found the website, it was 2pm on Christmas eve.

We wanted to attend their Christmas eve service.

We couldn’t find the schedule of Christmas eve services on their home page.

We dug around various pages, including the “upcoming events” page.

In fact, we couldn’t find any information on Christmas Eve services at all.

They post the church calendar on line, but information on the Chritmas Eve service wasn’t there.

The rest of the website seemed to have current information, but this critical information for potential church visitors was missing.

(FYI, this church does have a Christmas Eve service.  We attended a year later. . . )

Step 3.  We stayed home for dinner.

We didnt’ bother calling the church office.

We didn’t bother emailing the pastor.

We gave up.

We stayed home for dinner, and missed Christmas eve services for the 2nd year in a row.

Don’t make it hard for church visitors at Christmas

Update your home page to include the critical information, with links to detail pages.  The [Read More . . ] links come in handy.

Include social book marking tools on such pages so that your members can invite their networks and promote your activities.

If your church has a facebook page, update it with related information about your Christmas activities.

Don’t make it hard.

• by hosting Advent activities,
• reaching out into the community, and
• making your church more inviting.

Don’t miss the opportunities to introduce people to Christ this Christmas.

As you celebrate and announce the birth of Christ, don’t forget to also proclaim the resurrection of Christ. After all, that is the reason Jesus came.

Your church can make an eternal difference in the life of your visitors, if you can help them come back on a regular basis.

Several of you are already rehearsing your Christmas musicals, setting dates for your parties, and getting the ball rolling on your community service projects during December.

If you haven’t started, now is the time to begin planning your events to reach the first time visitor who will come this time of year.

Are you ready for a Christmas increase in First time church visitors?

A study in the late 1990s showed that three out of four Americans attend church some time during Christmas, and almost 30 percent attend church more frequently during the holidays.

They will be

• family members from out of town,
• people thinking about making a change in the coming year after Christmas
• seekers longing for the familiarity of Christmas traditions they grew up with
• curiosity driven consumers seeking the comforts of beautiful Christmas music

How one church failed it’s first time Christmas visitors

Don’t be like this church I visited — read here to get some ideas on how to fail your visitors.

A Christmas Eve Tale (My first time visit failure)

This was a disappointing experience.

Even though I was an out of town guest, this church lacked the foresight to connect with any of it’s guests.

Sloppy music, hard to find, and no one said hello made for an uninviting Christmas experience.

Prepare to receive your Christmas church visitors

Over the next few posts, I’ll share some ideas on Christmas outreaches, but let’s start this one with an intentional review of your hospitality systems.

Wise church leaders will do some advance preparation related to hospitality in expectation of new church visitors at Christmas. A regular review of your systems is a good way to make sure things flow smoothly. You know that Inertia and inefficiency always creep in.

Whether that is you as

• Senior Pastor
• Head of the Greeter / Ushers.
• The leader of your church hospitality ministry
• Chair of the committee that oversees your church welcome ministry.

Your systems and processes are 1 of at least 4 Variables in Church Hospitality.

Wise hospitality ministry leaders will

• Review their facility navigation
• Review their current facility appearance.
• Review their church visitor follow-up process.
• Review their status of current hospitality ministries
• Review their current church greeter process / volunteers
• Review their process to how they get church visitor contact information.

Doing this kind of review will often reveal a bunch of

• We need to fix this.
• We ought-a
• We should have . . .

Free Church Hospitality Assessment Download

Other Evangelism Coach resources to :

• Ebook: How to Welcome Church Visitors
• Ebook: Church Greeters 101
• Audio: Church Hospitality Systems Review
• Audio: Cast a vision for Church Hospitality

Read more for your Christmas planning

• Guest Post: Seeing Christmas stories through eyes of ministry
• How to Welcome Visitors During the Christmas Season