Why are the parking lots at Protestant Churchs emty on Christmas morning?

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Carlan

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I live in the Bible belt and between my home and my Church I pass about 8 or so protestant churches .The parking lots are always emty on Christmas day. On such a special day I’ve always wondered why.🤷
Peace, Carlan
 
Carlan said:
I live in the Bible belt and between my home and my Church I pass about 8 or so protestant churches .The parking lots are always emty on Christmas day. On such a special day I’ve always wondered why.🤷
Peace, Carlan
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The rumor is that Catholics come by and steal the cars. 😃

No, seriously, many churches do not have a service on Christmas morning, and consider the Christmas Eve service sufficient. Not unlike Catholics attending Saturday evening mass to satisfy their Sunday obligation, I suspect.

on
 
Carlan said:
I live in the Bible belt and between my home and my Church I pass about 8 or so protestant churches .The parking lots are always emty on Christmas day. On such a special day I’ve always wondered why.🤷
Peace, Carlan
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Its hard enough to get people to go to church on Christmas morning when it actually falls on a Sunday. Getting them to go when it isn’t Sunday is a real hassle. No one really wants to be there. Families make plans Christmas mornings.

While you’d think it would be important to observe the birth of Christ on the actual day, it really isn’t. It’s not like its Jesus’s actual birthday anyway, so if you hold religious services a few days earlier whats the big deal? My church does all of its Christmas stuff the Sunday before Christmas.
 
most protestants go to church on Christmas eve. i speak as a former protestant.
 
datritle said:
most protestants go to church on Christmas eve. i speak as a former protestant.
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That’s my experience too. Christmas eve is a really big deal in a lot of Protestant Churches. Live nativity scenes, kids’ programs, adult worship, etc. It’s not mandatory, but usually they have no problem with turnout.
 
Well, as a former baptist, we never really put much emphasis on church attendance, it was never considered a sin if you missed or not.
 
In Baptist churches we had a candlelight service on Christmas Eve. I can’t speak to other denominations.
 
We have services tonight, none tomorrow. I’ve NEVER had a service on Christmas Day. I think the idea would stun people.
 
Our church parking lot will be filled on Christmas day… just after midnight mass. 🙂

My pastor explained that we view the birth of Jesus as happening in the during the night of Christmas eve. On Christmas day, we open presents with the family, and later in the day, one can go to church to pray and be apart of the church community if they would like to - many do.
 
benjohnson said:
Our church parking lot will be filled on Christmas day… just after midnight mass. 🙂

My pastor explained that we view the birth of Jesus as happening in the during the night of Christmas eve. On Christmas day, we open presents with the family, and later in the day, one can go to church to pray and be apart of the church community if they would like to - many do.
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Getting a Baptist to stay up beyond Midnight was next to impossible.
:eek:
 
We have the Eucharist on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - how many chances do Lutherans have to receive two days in a row?!!!

[to my Catholic brethren - you can stop smirking now]
 
Carlan said:
I live in the Bible belt and between my home and my Church I pass about 8 or so protestant churches .The parking lots are always emty on Christmas day. On such a special day I’ve always wondered why.🤷
Peace, Carlan
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perhaps they believe that driving is work and work is considered a sin on such days like Sundays etc 🤷 Or may be they simply walk to church rather than drive. Quite a few people in our church walk to church…

Or may be their service is at a different time to yours, as our priest does two services Christmas Day as with every Sunday and naturally He cannot be in two churches at the same time and thus service is at a different time. Such a simple explanation why their carpark may be empty. Service may not actually be happening at that time.👍

Why do Catholics have to drive to church each time I could ask in return. Couldn’t they leave their cars at home and help to do their bit to look after our environment and not polute the air etc.
 
My church is having a Eucharist service
tomorrow. And two candlelight services tonight.
 
iloveangels said:
That’s my experience too. Christmas eve is a really big deal in a lot of Protestant Churches. Live nativity scenes, kids’ programs, adult worship, etc. It’s not mandatory, but usually they have no problem with turnout.
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Most churches in where I live have two services—one around 4:30 with a kid’s program, then a late candlelight service.

We’re having a quiet, beautiful snow for Christmas Eve! Yay!
 
I’m in the Bible belt too and I’d never heard of a Christmas day service until I became Catholic 🤷 . Plenty of Christmas stuff going on for a few weeks before and there may be some Christmas Eve services, but typically on Christmas day they just stay with their families. I wanted/want to go to Mass tomorrow morning but I probably won’t be able to because we go to my grandma’s house and have breakfast and exchange gifts with our extended family in the morning.
 
Growing up, most of the churches I attended did not have Christmas Eve or Christmas Day services. Certainly the Assemblies and other non-denoms didn’t. (Too Catholic??🤷)

The one service all the Christmas and Easter Christians made sure they made it to was what is actually the 4th Sunday of Advent. If the church was large, however, the Christmas musical usually ran at least the last two Sundays of Advent. At least in the evenings.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent with family and friends.
And that is why there are no cars at a Protestant Church on Christmas.
Kris
 
Why are the parking lots at Protestant Church’s empty on Christmas morning?
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'Cause they all flocked to the nearest beautiful Catholic cathedral for midnight Mass the night before. 😛
 
Nigel7 said:
'Cause they all flocked to the nearest beautiful Catholic cathedral for midnight Mass the night before. 😛
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Actually not all, but some. We do get a lot of tourists at Midnight Mass, but a lot of them are non-practicing “Catholics.”
 
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