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Try to plan the weeks just before and after Christmas now so you're not caught in a whirlwind of other details then. In addition to technical details, be sure to schedule extra family time or buffer time for the November/December timeframe, then build your Christmas schedule around those important dates.
If you’re a staff member or volunteer for a local church, "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" might be better referred to as the most stressful, busy, and intense time of the year. While you may not have much control over what your Christmas season entails, there are several things you can begin doing right now to help make this busy season more bearable.
Expectations
A major challenge during Christmas can be downtime to spend with your family. Between decorating the stage, programming complicated lighting or audio sets, integrating additional equipment, and the never-ending to-do list, your family time is limited and precious. One thing you can start doing today is talking with your spouse, kids, immediate family members, and friends to begin setting proper expectations. Let them know now that the weeks and days leading up to Christmas may require you to work extra hours or odd times. Try to make plans for family gatherings a week or two before Christmas or immediately following Christmas Day. Many times, you can avoid an upset family member or disappointed spouse if you set the proper expectation up front with plenty of time to discuss and plan other options.
A second factor that relates to your time and family during this season is just that, make sure it’s only a season with a hard end date that allows you time to rest and recover. Schedule a time to talk with your pastor or supervisor to plan some time off immediately following the holiday season. Go ahead and secure your volunteers, schedule your content, and set the expectation that the days and gatherings immediately following Christmas may be simplified to allow you the time to rest and recover. This will look different for every person in every church, but if you don’t begin planning now, you’ll get caught up in a never-ending cycle of busyness that will lead to burnout.
Planning
Speaking of volunteers, now is a great time to make sure your staff and volunteers are sufficient and proficient to carry the load during Christmas. While you may not know all the details or anything at all about your Christmas plans, you can look back to past services to see what was required and get a reasonable idea of what might be needed this year. It’s also a great time to go ahead and schedule a few volunteer dinners and training events where you can spend some time honing their skills and showing your appreciation to them ahead of the busy season.
Right now, is also a great time to plan a meeting with your church’s pastor, worship pastor, or leadership team to start talking about Christmas, especially if you haven’t already begun the discussion. While it may seem very early for them, ensure them that it’s time to begin brainstorming. Take some time to explain to them that you might need to recruit new volunteers, purchase, or rent new equipment, or even make major scheduling changes to the church calendar.
If you do need to secure new equipment for your Christmas services and events, you may have to explore new options. With severe constraints on the supply chain still in place, you may find the equipment you need on back order well into next year. Maybe you need more microphones for an expanded worship team, band, or orchestra. You also may want to add some new light fixtures to give a pop of color or movement to your stage. You might also need to service some of your existing gear, like replacing projector lamps, replenishing your haze fluid, or swapping out lamps in your Christmas light strands. Go ahead and begin talking with any vendors or integrators you use now if you know of equipment you need in place by Christmas. If you’re unsure, make sure you are familiar with local or online rental houses. Keep in mind, demand goes up during this time, so even though they might have it right now, that might not be the case in a few months.
While you’re talking with local rental companies and AVL vendors, it’s also a good time to network with local freelancers. As your Christmas services require more complicated and technical setups, you may need to bring in additional outside help to work alongside you and your staff or volunteers to make it happen. Those outside of the church world usually look at the end of the year as a few weeks of downtime. If you talk with them now, they can get you penciled into their calendars and be available to help if needed. Also, go ahead and ask about their rates so you can have that information ready when the cost conversation happens.
Preparation
If you find yourself at a place where you have some knowledge of Christmas plans, then it’s time to get technical. Go ahead and start diving into the technical details and plans now. There are several areas you can begin to plan such as your stage layout, lighting diagrams, audio plans, and video details. Once you have an idea of who and what will be on the stage, you can figure out what will be needed to see and hear what’s happening. If your church takes more of a theatrical or musical approach to this, you’ll probably want to consider adding additional lighting fixtures to create your scenes. You’ll need to ensure you have those fixtures available or secured through a rental company and make sure they are compatible with your lighting board or program. You will also want to ensure you have enough channels to add the lights you need. You may also need additional inputs or microphones to make sure everything is audible. Again, if you take a theatrical or musical approach to this, you may need more wireless mic options or microphones for instrumentation. Finally, you can begin to plan your video coverage for the service if you have more details worked out. You may need to adjust your camera positions or work on blocking to ensure capturing everything that happens on stage. You may also want to coordinate your graphics with your lighting setup to enhance the visual experience. While these little details may seem like minor things to plan this early in the year, it will pay dividends when the pace picks up in a few months.
Once you’ve communicated with your immediate family and your church family to set expectations and done your due diligence to plan and fully prepare, it’s time to strap in and enjoy the ride. Think back and reflect on why you started in this ministry from the beginning. When the going gets tough (and it will), it’s important to know your “why.” As the old saying goes, don’t forget the reason for the season. There is a great chance that people who would otherwise not step foot in a church may attend during Christmas. This might be their opportunity to hear the Gospel and make a decision that will change them for eternity. When you’re spending countless hours preparing and executing the plan, just know that what you are doing matters.
