Creative Ways to Celebrate Holidays
by Ret David North
How does your church celebrate Mothers or Fathers for Mothers’ and Fathers’ Day? How do you be aware and navigate being inclusive as well as for those who experience grief on these days? How do you plan to celebrate Memorial Day as a church in your communications? Do you celebrate Black History Month, or Pride Month, or Women’s History Month? Do your communications send messages of solidarity to our siblings of other faiths on the holidays they celebrate?
First of all, if there are any holidays your church does not celebrate, it might be a good idea to prepare a conversation as to why you don’t. For many of us, even recognizing holidays from other faiths, denominations, or countries is a chance to celebrate with one another in community! But depending on the holiday and just looking at the sheer number of them, it can feel performative and perhaps even tedious.
Communication from churches on holidays, from your regular parishioner to people scrolling your FaceBook page for the first time, enables us to see, hear, and speak directly to those who celebrate. This is an important community dynamic that has the potential to make the bonds in your community that much stronger! Looking for where to start? Check out some fun ways to celebrate different holidays below!
Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day is a great time to celebrate the people who help make your church run! It is also a time to be sensitive to people who may be feeling grief, for one reason or another: people unable to have children, single parents, and children without parents. Here are a couple of ways to celebrate Mother’s Day in your communicative and administrative work.
Make a short video! This can be a fun way to get lots of different people from your church involved.
Bring in your youth program and get talking about the moms in your community.
Thank all of the women who make your church run (this can also be a great way to thank your volunteers and church staff).
Celebrate multiple generations! Often, families will have two or three generations of mothers all attending your church!
Consider a themed outreach donation. This is a great way to be sensitive to those experiencing grief on Mother’s Day. This may even be donating to an organization with whom you have a long-standing partnership.
Pride Month
Does your church celebrate Pride Month? It is more crucial than ever that churches celebrate and affirm our LGBTQ+ siblings (for more information, see article below). Below are a few ways to celebrate Pride Month.
Take time to find books, articles, documentaries, and more about LGBTQ+ individuals and the issues they are facing. If you have visible LGBTQ+ members of your community, this is not only a time to celebrate them but to support them and stand with them through backlash from politics and hateful people. Look and listen for any negativity toward our LGBTQ+ siblings and use articles and constructive, supportive conversation to figure out ways to shut it down. Overall, this is a time to stimulate the education of your community! Here are some great resources:
Watch Disclosure (documentary) – Netflix
Read Transforming: The Bible & The Lives of Transgender Christians by Austen Hartke
Visit PFLAG: Faith Resources for Christians at https://pflag.org/blog/faith-resources-christians
Read 10 Things Your Congregation Can Do to Become More LGBTQ+ Friendly at https://www.uua.org/lgbtq/welcoming/ways/10-ways
Attend your local Pride Festival! Lots of churches collaborate by denomination to host a booth at local Pride Festivals to speak to LGBTQ+ people directly. Whether you host a booth, march in a parade, or just go out and talk to people, make it something your community can join in!
Consider a themed outreach donation. If you haven’t already, this would be a good time to find an organization with whom to establish a long-term relationship. Throughout Pride Month, you can also find different organizations and causes that serve various issues and groups within the LGBTQ+ community.
Show solidarity! Hang up a Progress Pride Flag outside your church. This flag is a holistic representative token of the LGBTQ+ community, and you can hang it as a symbolic message of affirmation to the LGBTQ+ members of your community.
Black History Month
Depending on the demographic of your community, it might feel a little out of your comfort zone to celebrate Black History Month. Regardless, it is important to celebrate our BIPOC siblings and support their visibility. Where to start?
Celebrate Racial Reconciliation Sunday. The second Sunday in February is becoming more commonly celebrated as Racial Reconciliation Sunday. Much of this practice is for the purpose of promoting and supporting racial righteousness, or the work towards overcoming division and brokenness caused by racism. On this Sunday and others throughout Black History Month, keep a focus in mind on listening to our BIPOC siblings with love and humility, even through difficult conversations where we acknowledge hurt, pain, trauma, and hatred.
Host an open, honest, and safe discussion panel on race-related issues and ensure that BIPOC people, their experiences, and their needs are centered. This should not be a lecture, nor should BIPOC people be required to teach congregations how to be respectful and affirming. Rather, it should be a community endeavor to better understand one another spiritually within the context of race.
Holidays from other denominations and faiths
We are in a time of great tension, even between different denominations of Christianity. It is important for us to show love, support, and solidarity to our siblings of other faiths, especially as our Muslim and Jewish siblings are consistently marginalized and targeted. Recognizing important holidays celebrated in the Muslim and Jewish faiths, among others, is an important practice in teaching and reinforcing peace, respect, love, and solidarity to our communities.
For more resources on which holidays should be important to recognize and how you might properly acknowledge them, visit https://diversity.missouri.edu/guide-to-religions/dates-practices-accomodations/