# If you attended a Christmas church service this year, how was it?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-attended-a-christmas-church-service-this-year-how-was-it/565401>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [December 26, 2010, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-attended-a-christmas-church-service-this-year-how-was-it/565401 "2010-12-26T02:49:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![apollonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@apollonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apollonia)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-attended-a-christmas-church-service-this-year-how-was-it/565401/21 "2010-12-28T23:46:55Z")

</div>

> [@Ann\_Onimous](#):
>
> We did not get to go to the Christmas Eve service, but we did go to the Hanging of the Green earlier in December. The service was led by the children, youth and college students. The children’s choirs sang, the children’s handbell choir performed, and the sanctuary was decorated and prepared for Christmas. It was the first time I had ever attended this type of service, and it was extremely moving. It was the one thing that helped prepare me for the Christmas season as well.

Forgive my ignorance, but I’m very curious. I’ve never heard of this type of ceremony before and a quick Google search seems to turn up references to Baptist churches and, basically, programs for services. Would you mind elaborating a little? It sounds like a sort of pre-Advent decorating service with evergreens and pointsettias, like a pre-preparation thing–is that right?

On topic: I went to a midnight Mass, it was lovely, the only hiccup was an issue with the lights at the beginning. They were dimmed, but then someone leaned up against the light switch putting them on full brightness, and the panic reaction was to turn them all the way off again–lots of people looking around thinking they had gone blind for a moment before the lights came up dim again.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ann\_Onimous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@Ann\_Onimous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Onimous)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-attended-a-christmas-church-service-this-year-how-was-it/565401/22 "2010-12-29T00:30:21Z")

</div>

> [@apollonia](#):
>
> Forgive my ignorance, but I’m very curious. I’ve never heard of this type of ceremony before and a quick Google search seems to turn up references to Baptist churches and, basically, programs for services. Would you mind elaborating a little? It sounds like a sort of pre-Advent decorating service with evergreens and pointsettias, like a pre-preparation thing–is that right?

No forgiveness required: as I said, this was my first one ever. 🙂

Basically, you have it totally right. It’s a formal decorating of the sanctuary in preparation of the Christmas season. The rest of the churches I have attended put the decorations up during the week: you know, one Sunday, suddenly they’re there. The decorating of the church with all the evergreens and the poinsettias really make it feel like Christmas.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-attended-a-christmas-church-service-this-year-how-was-it/565401.md?page=1)