The Christmas church graphics checklist for 2026

December asks more of the person making the graphics than any other month. An Advent series, a Christmas Eve service, two or three events, and a pile of posts, all landing in the same four weeks as everything else.

Most churches get through it with three main designs. One for the Advent series, one for Christmas Eve, and one per event. Everything else on this list is a size or a version of one of those.

Here's the whole list for 2026, when each piece should be ready, and which ones can share a design.

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The 2026 dates to plan around

Christmas Eve is a Thursday this year and Christmas Day is a Friday. Advent starts Sunday, November 29, and the Sunday after Christmas is December 27.

That Thursday matters. A Christmas Eve on a weeknight means people decide during the work week, so your invite and your service-time posts need to be out earlier than they would for a Sunday service.

Churches using ChurchCreate are already on it. In October, about one in four projects people started was for Christmas or Advent.

The checklist

The dates are the latest each piece should be ready, not the day to start it. The Sunday after Christmas slide is on there early on purpose. Nobody wants to make a graphic on December 26.

Before Advent starts

Two things need to be done before Thanksgiving week gets in the way.

• The Advent series. The series slide, a version with no words for lyrics and sermon notes, and a feed post and story to announce it. I wrote a separate post on Advent sermon series ideas and the graphics each one needs.
• The Christmas Eve invite. It's the one design that goes to people who have never been to your church, so it gets its own post too: how to make a Christmas Eve invite your church will actually share.

December events

Most churches run at least one December event on top of the services. A party, a kids' night, caroling, a giving drive or a choir concert. Each one needs a single design in screen, feed and story sizes, ready three weeks out so it gets three Sundays of announcements.

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Kids Christmas PartyBold

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Give events a look of their own. If the kids' party looks exactly like the Christmas Eve service, the lobby TV loop becomes a blur of the same red and gold, and nobody can tell what they're being invited to.

Christmas Eve service slides

These all live on the screens in the room, so they're all 16:9. Make them from your Christmas Eve design so the service looks like one thing from the first slide to the last.

1. 1.A welcome slide for the pre-service loop, with the church name and "Merry Christmas."
2. 2.A background with no words for the countdown, if you run one.
3. 3.Lyric backgrounds, a darker or simpler version of the design so the words read clearly.
4. 4.A sermon title slide.
5. 5.A giving slide with your text-to-give number or QR code.
6. 6.A candle lighting slide that tells people when to light and when to pass the flame.
7. 7.A closing slide with your next Sunday's service time, which is December 27 this year.

The candle lighting slide is the one people forget. A room of first-time guests holding unlit candles doesn't know what happens next, and a slide that says so saves the person on stage from explaining it over the music.

Online and around town

• Service times post. One feed post and one story with every Christmas Eve service time, the address and whether kids are welcome. Post it by December 13 and again the week of.
• Website banner. Put the Christmas Eve design at the top of your home page by early December. That's where people go after someone forwards your invite.
• Facebook event cover. 1920 × 1005, from the same design. Create the event early so people can mark themselves as going and share it.
• Livestream thumbnail. 1280 × 720 for YouTube. People searching "Christmas Eve service near me" will see it.
• Email header. A wide version for the Christmas Eve email to your list.

After Christmas

• A Merry Christmas post for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Keep it simple and skip the service times, since by then they're over.
• A thank-you post the week after, with a photo from the service if you have one.
• The Sunday after Christmas slide. December 27 is usually one of the quietest Sundays of the year. A plain, warm slide is plenty.

If you're starting a new series in January, make the announcement slide before Christmas too. The week between Christmas and New Year's is a bad week to be designing anything.

What can share a design

You don't need twenty designs. Here's how most churches cover the whole season with three or four.

Questions people ask about Christmas church graphics

When is Christmas Eve in 2026?

Christmas Eve 2026 is on Thursday, December 24, and Christmas Day is Friday, December 25. The Sunday before is December 20 and the Sunday after is December 27.

When should a church start its Christmas graphics?

Start by early November. The Advent series graphic should be finished by November 15, and the Christmas Eve invite by December 6, so both get several Sundays on your screens.

How many graphics does a church need for Christmas?

Most churches need three or four main designs. One for the Advent series, one for Christmas Eve, and one for each December event. Every slide and post on the checklist is a size or version of one of those.

What size should Christmas Eve slides be?

Make them 1920 × 1080 pixels, the 16:9 size for nearly every screen and projector. Make the invite and social posts in 1080 × 1350 for the feed and 1080 × 1920 for stories.

Should every Christmas Eve service use the same graphics?

Yes. If you run several services, use the same slides for each and change only the service time where it appears. It keeps the night consistent and saves you from building a set per service.