Holiday Giving at Church: How to Plan a Christmas Offering (+ Sample Offering Talk)

Christmas is the biggest giving season of the year for most churches. December brings larger gifts, guests who only come a few times a year, and real needs in your community you can help meet.

It can also feel awkward. You want people focused on Jesus, not the offering plate.

While it would be nice to be able to focus purely on the sanctity of Christian holy days to honor God, without thinking about the church’s financial status for a moment, that simply will never be the case.

Holidays and giving are irrevocably linked.

But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

Because here’s the thing—giving to the church is a sacred act.

It’s a response to a call from God to support his work and his people.

Giving follows a pattern of participation in the same great Apostolic tradition from which the Christian holidays were born. 

Therefore, holidays and giving naturally, theologically, and Christianly go hand in hand. 

So then, how should you think about giving during the holidays?

What’s the best way to correlate these two realities without, on the one hand, making every single holiday a reason to give over and above and, on the other hand, an awkwardness about giving during the holiday season?

How can you tie together holidays and giving naturally to increase your church’s resources for expanding Christ’s kingdom, get new people walking in the doors, and meeting the needs of your community? 

Eight realities help us to better understand what this relationship is and how to integrate it into the inner life of the church.

Let’s dive right in.

1. The meaning of holidays in the life of the church

Holidays represent key moments in the liturgical year when the church reflects on the unfolding gospel of Christ throughout redemptive history.

From Old Testament festivals to their Christianization in the New Testament—Passover and Pentecost, for example—these holy days prompt believers to remember God’s faithfulness to his people. 

And why do we celebrate God’s faithfulness to people of the past?

Because his past faithfulness is always future-bent:

“He remembers his covenant forever, the promise he made, for a thousand generations” (1 Chron. 16:15).

The same God who kept his word to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the people of Israel, keeps his promises today to those who are in Christ (Gal. 3:16).

2. Holiday giving in church history

Everyone is familiar with “Christmas gifts.” But there is a much richer history of the church manifesting and exemplifying generosity for and to the world.

The church has always practiced “almsgiving.”

The word “alm” meaning “mercy,” indicating a free, no-strings-attached, charitable gift to those in need. The church has always construed almsgiving as a virtue. Even in Judaism, the term for almsgiving was tzedakah, which is literally the Hebrew word meaning “righteousness.” 

While the pagan philosophers debated whether to live selfishly or selflessly, the people of God always had a system of routine—or, recurring—gifts of mercy to those without the means to support themselves.

From the most ancient Jewish practices to the early church, to Thomas Aquinas, and through to the Reformation and the Puritans, almsgiving has always been a practice that is associated especially with the holy days. 

This is, of course, all rooted in a tradition of responding with gratitude to the same God who has provided mercifully for his people throughout history. God’s own generosity to Israel in the wilderness and to the world in Christ through the gospel prompts a response toward those, like us, without hope, so that we give “without a grudging heart” (Deut. 15:10).

3. The church on mission during the holidays

The holidays are a time when loss, absence, and lack are really felt.

Holidays generally prompt consumption, because they are festivals—literally feast days—that promote celebrating God’s good gifts in the form of food, which symbolizes God’s generosity to his people.

During this time of abundance, the church should be on a special mission to include those who cannot afford to purchase food for the holidays so that they too can celebrate God’s faithfulness to them, even in seasons of lack.

The church can be on mission during the holidays in at least three ways.

First, the church can host a communal meal for the congregation which feeds all who register—and, congregants can sponsor meals for others who can’t afford it. This can easily be done in Tithely Events—including a registration and payment form—and by using this, you can store newcomer contact information in Tithely ChMS.

Second, the church can collectively decide to host similar meals, but during small group. This would be a time for small groups to invite new visitors—or newcomers who want to get plugged in—to a more intimate church setting that helps them to experience God’s generosity on a personal level in someone’s home.

Third, a church can partner with a local mercy ministry or homeless shelter to either sponsor or volunteer to help feed the homeless. 

4. How holidays affect giving in your church

Holidays can raise giving or lower it, sometimes in the same season.

They raise it by prompting generosity, especially at Christmas and Easter, when members bring family and friends and guests give who rarely attend. December is the clearest example. According to Tithely giving data:

• December is the highest generosity month, with 11% of all donations given in December.
• The average gift is 21% higher in December.
• Total giving in December is 33% higher than in any other month.

Holidays can also lower giving, because they prompt travel. When people miss Sundays, they often miss giving too. (The same thing drives the summer giving slump.) That’s why it’s essential to offer mobile giving, online giving and recurring giving.

Three takeaways for your church:

• Stay consistent. Talk about generosity all year, not just in December.
• Plan for December. People give more generously at Christmas, so give them a clear reason (see the 7-step plan below).
• Make giving easy anywhere. Online, mobile and text giving let people give from wherever they spend the holidays.

5. How to keep giving steady when people travel

Recurring giving softens the effect of holiday travel. When members schedule their gifts, giving continues whether they’re home, visiting family or snowed in.

With Tithely Giving, people can give through mobile giving, online giving, text giving or your church app, and set up a recurring gift by card, bank account or Apple Pay. A weekly gift keeps going even on the Sundays they’re away.

A few ways to encourage recurring giving this season:

• Mention it in your Christmas services, when guests and occasional attenders are in the room.
• Add a recurring giving link to your Christmas emails, slides and bulletin.
• Thank recurring givers in January and show what their consistency made possible.

6. How to plan a special Christmas offering in 7 steps

A special Christmas offering is a gift above regular tithes, given to one clear cause: a missionary family, a church plant, a local shelter or a building need. Done well, it’s one of the most joyful things your church does all year.

Step 1: Lead people to Jesus

Christmas is about the greatest gift ever given. Before you ask for anything, point people to Jesus, God’s own Son. Generosity grows from gratitude: “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Cor. 9:15).

Step 2: Connect giving to discipleship

Giving isn’t only about money. God uses it to grow our trust in him and loosen our grip on what we have. Help people see the offering as a way to join God’s work, and tell stories of lives changed through ministry their giving supports.

Step 3: Choose one compelling need

Pick a specific need and put a face on it. Show a photo, introduce the person who leads that ministry and set a clear goal, so people know exactly what their gift will do.

Step 4: Create a communication plan

Decide how and when you’ll share the offering, then share it more than once, starting in late November and continuing through Christmas Eve. (Here’s how to build a church communication strategy.)

• Make an announcement from the stage
• Share a testimony, live or on video
• Send an email and a text to your church
• Add the offering to your website and church app
• Post it on social media
• Include it in your bulletin and Christmas Eve slides

Step 5: Celebrate progress along the way

Each week in December, share how much has been given toward the goal, how many households have taken part, what the money will make possible and a sincere thank you.

Step 6: Make it easy to give anywhere

Many Christmas Eve guests won’t carry cash or checks. Put a QR code on the screen and in the bulletin, share a text-to-give number and make sure your giving page works well on a phone. It’s fine to walk people through it during the service: people want to know how to give, and it makes a recurring gift easier to set up later. For more ideas, see text-to-give holiday campaigns that deliver.

Step 7: Follow up in January

Close the loop. Share the final total (even if you fell short), show what the gift accomplished and invite someone to share how taking part affected them. Then thank your givers with a handwritten note, email or text, and send year-end giving statements.

7. A short Christmas tithes and offering talk

Use or adapt this one-minute talk before your Christmas offering:

Christmas is about a gift. Long before we wrapped presents for each other, God gave us his Son. Jesus came to us when we couldn’t reach him, and he gave everything so we could be with him forever. As the apostle Paul wrote, “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”

Our giving is our response to that gift. Tonight we’re receiving our tithes and offerings, including our Christmas offering for [cause]. Every gift this month will [specific impact].

If you call [church name] home, thank you for your faithful generosity all year. If you’re our guest, we’re so glad you’re here. Please don’t feel any pressure to give; tonight is our gift to you.

You can give with the envelopes in your seat, by scanning the QR code on the screen or by texting [keyword] to [number]. Let’s pray.

8. How to use holidays to deepen discipleship in your church

Giving is part of discipleship. 

Combine the sacredness of the holiday and the importance of giving to God in a single celebratory event service.

Multiple passages in Scripture speak in concert to help us get a better glimpse into the connection between generosity and spiritual maturity: 

“Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to” (Deut. 15:10). 

“Whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor will also cry out and not be answered” (Prov. 21:13).

“The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor” (Prov. 22:9).

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:19–21).

God cares about your finances, and he cares about resourcing the church to do the work he has called them to do.

In fact, the holidays are the perfect time to connect spiritual maturity about one’s finances with the ministry capacity of the church. This is one of the reasons God instituted festivals—to unify his people, and to lift up the downtrodden to share collectively in a celebration of God’s evergreen faithfulness.

Over to You

How will your church celebrate God’s faithfulness this Christmas?

Start with one clear need, a simple plan and an easy way to give. Then tell the story of what God did through your church’s generosity. For more ideas for the season, see our 15 year-end giving campaign ideas for churches.