Stat of the Day:
39% of young parents will travel to visit family and/or friends for the holidays, compared to 28% of non-parents
Why it matters:
As Covid precautions are less and less observed across the country, more young people are planning travel during the upcoming holiday season (and praying that the government doesn’t shut down so that TSA workers show up for their shifts). This is especially the case for young parents—they’ll get their cars packed up and their flights booked in order to visit cousins and grandparents for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and more.
Extended family visits represent an important shift from the norms of the Covid years, where many families skipped gatherings or endured hours on chilly porches wearing facemasks. A return to these pre-Covid traditions represents an opportunity for church leaders, as many will be joining their relatives for religious services during the holidays. Church leaders can utilize some of the lessons learned during Covid to support the religious and spiritual growth of their families or those extended relatives who may be coming in from out of town.
Try it:
During Covid, many of us spent copious hours planning detailed liturgies, prayers, Godly Play stories, and more for parishioners and their families could do at home. Some even developed significant video libraries providing formation around these liturgies or family practices. Though none of us desire to return to the depths of a global pandemic, we can brush off some of those skills and unearth those resources to create simple home liturgies or all-age instructional videos for our parishioners to take with them on their travels (and maybe even introduce to their extended family networks!).
Furthermore, providing a simple take-home liturgy could be an easy way to leave a lasting impact on visiting families who show up for Christmas services. For example, someone who attends Christmas eve when in town with their family might appreciate a take-home exercise that bridges the transition from Christmas season to Epiphany (they might even return with questions about what the heck Epiphany season is in the first place!). A grab-bag with activities to do at home with kids or a simple URL to online video content could go a long way towards making young families feel welcome and that the church has something more to often than just great Christmas and Easter liturgies.