Christmas Outreach Ideas for Catholic Parishes: 5 Ways to Welcome Visitors and Keep Them Coming Back

Christmas Mass brings many faces through your parish doors — faithful parishioners, visiting family members, Catholics returning to Mass, people searching for a new parish, and those who simply felt called to go to church this Christmas. This makes the Christmas season a super important opportunity for Catholic parish Christmas outreach. With a little intentional planning, parish staff can help visitors find your parish, feel welcome when they arrive, know what to expect, and find a reason to return after Christmas!

Here are five ways to prepare your parish communications and community for Christmas Mass visitors this year.

Make Your Christmas Mass Times Easy to Find Online

Before someone walks through your doors, there’s a good chance they’ll look for you online. Make it as simple as possible for visitors to find accurate Christmas Mass times without having to dig through your website.

Post your Christmas schedule prominently on your homepage and make sure visitors can quickly find:

• Christmas Eve Mass times
• Christmas Day Mass times
• Midnight Mass (if your parish celebrates one)
• Masses offered in other languages
• Your parish address and parking information
• Accessibility information
• Any special instructions visitors should know before arriving
  
  

Then, check your parish’s online presence from a visitor’s perspective. Is your address correct? Are your regular Mass times clearly distinguished from your Christmas Mass schedule? Can someone easily find the information from a phone or tablet?

Your parish website often serves as a “front door” for people deciding whether to visit. LPi’s WeConnect parish websites make it easy for parish staff to keep information up to date while creating a welcoming digital home for their community.

Keeping your ParishesOnline.com listing page updated with any specific information you want to share is also just as important. Directories like ParishesOnline.com are key resources for Catholics across the country searching for local churches to attend, especially during the Christmas season!

Not sure what MyParishOnline.com is, or how to manage your listing? Learn more about this important resource inside the article, Parishes Online: Helping Your Church Bulletin Reach Beyond Sunday.

Invite Your Community to Christmas Mass

Posting your Christmas Mass times online matters, but personally inviting people to join you for Christmas Mass takes your Christmas outreach one important step further.

Share your church’s Christmas event schedule across your parish website, social media, email communications, bulletin, and any other channels your community regularly uses. Give parishioners information they can easily share with friends and family, too. For example, a Christmas Mass graphic posted on social media can become a simple digital invitation when a parishioner shares it with someone they know. For a marketing guide specifically made for promoting your church’s Christmas events and communications, use our free church Christmas online marketing guide!

Don’t limit your Christmas outreach to the people already following your parish online, though! Encourage parishioners to personally invite a friend, neighbor, coworker, or family member to Christmas Mass. You can also create simple printed Christmas invitations that parishioners can take with them and share throughout the community. LPi’s Print & Copy services make it easy to create professional postcards, flyers, and other printed pieces for your parish outreach efforts.

As you create your Christmas parish communications, remember that the people seeing them may have very different relationships with the Church. Keep your invitation warm, clear, and approachable rather than assuming everyone has had the same experiences or already knows what to expect.

Visual consistency will help people recognize that a message is coming from your parish, whether they encounter it on Facebook, your website, or in print. If your parish communications could use a more unified identity, LPi’s church logos and branding services can help your parish tell its story consistently across print and digital platforms. For ready-to-use Catholic graphics and social media content, WeCreate also provides liturgically appropriate content that can be used across your parish communications!

Bookmark our free Complete Guide to Church Branding for Catholic Parishes to dive deeper into this topic.

How to Prepare to Welcome Visitors at Christmas Mass

When preparing to welcome visitors to your Catholic church this Christmas, think about your Christmas Mass through the eyes of someone who has never visited your parish. We published a step-by-step list if you need some inspiration.

For example, regular parishioners know which entrance to use, where the restrooms are, where to park, and what happens when they walk inside. A Christmas visitor may be completely new to your community and know none of those things.

Clear signage and friendly greeters are a great first step in reducing that uncertainty. Make sure you take the time to make it easy for guests and newbies to identify entrances, restrooms, accessibility tools/options, and other important spaces. If your parish has traditions or logistics unique to your Christmas Mass that differ from the “regularly scheduled program,” do your best to consider how these things can be communicated before anyone has to ask for them.

Another thought — be mindful of Catholic or parish-specific acronyms, too. A returning Catholic or first-time visitor may not know certain Catholic terms, names, and abbreviations. Clear communication can help them feel included rather than like an outsider trying to decipher parish shorthand or insider language. Ask yourself, for example, would a brand-new visitor understand a sign that says, “Bathrooms are located through the narthex and past the sacristy on the left” or “Children are invited to sit in the crying room”?

Hospitality doesn’t need to be elaborate. A clear sign, an available usher to point the way, and a sincere welcome go a long way toward helping someone navigate an unfamiliar place with confidence.

Create a Christmas Bulletin With Visitors in Mind

Your Catholic Christmas bulletin may be one of the few pieces of parish communication a visitor physically takes home. Take time to make the most of that and use the opportunity intentionally.

Start by looking at the bulletin as someone who knows very little about your parish. Keep the layout clean and make important information easy to find. Consider placing newcomer-friendly opportunities near the front rather than burying them among announcements intended primarily for longtime parishioners. If you need serious bulletin inspiration, we have a great, easy-to-understand guide available for free.

Think about what you'd most want a Christmas visitor to discover in those pages:

• A warm welcome from your pastor or parish community
• Your regular Mass and confession schedule
• Upcoming parish events that are easy for newcomers to attend
• Opportunities to learn more about the Catholic faith
• Information for those interested in becoming Catholic
• Simple ways to connect with your parish after Christmas
• Clear contact information, website links, or QR codes for learning more
• Resources for visitors who have disabilities
  
  

Arrange your bulletin content with purpose, beginning with approachable opportunities such as coffee and doughnuts, newcomer gatherings, and community events before introducing opportunities that may feel like a bigger commitment.

And remember to explain rather than abbreviate. For example, instead of simply listing an “OCIA meeting,” briefly explain what OCIA is and whom it is for. Most importantly, give readers an obvious next step: a website, email address, phone number, QR code, or person to contact.

Design matters, too! Trying to fit every announcement into your Christmas bulletin can make the information visitors actually need harder to find. A clean, welcoming design helps important messages stand out. LPi’s print and digital church bulletin services include a personalized, custom bulletin design as well as extensive resources to help parishes create bulletins that represent their communities.

Give Christmas Visitors a Reason to Come Back to Church

Remember, the Christmas season extends well past your church’s last Christmas Mass, so your Christmas outreach shouldn’t just simply end on December 26. In fact, if you do it right, your Christmas outreach can start a lasting outreach all year long!

To do this, make sure that before visitors leave, you give them a simple, yet inviting glimpse of what comes next at your parish. Highlight an upcoming event, an opportunity to meet other parishioners, a faith formation program, information for someone interested in becoming Catholic, or another low-pressure way to reconnect, like inviting them to follow you on Facebook.

Don’t overwhelm Christmas guests with an enormous list of everything your parish has to offer. Instead, choose a few meaningful next steps and make them easy to understand and easy to access.

This is where your bulletin, website, social media, and in-person hospitality work together as a cohesive evangelization system. Someone may notice an event in the bulletin, visit your website later to learn more, be reminded of that event through social media, and then eventually decide to return and visit your parish again. Consistent Christmas parish communications and follow-up make that journey a whole lot easier.

Christmas gives Catholic parishes a unique opportunity to encounter people at different places in their faith journeys. Make your Christmas Mass times easy to find, extend a genuine invitation, prepare your parish for newcomers, create visitor-friendly communications, and offer a clear next step after Christmas to maximize your outreach efforts. Your parish can’t know what brought each person through the doors, but your parish can make sure that everyone who visits for Christmas leaves knowing that your door is always open for them to come back.

Merry Christmas!