Like many worship leaders I worked at my church part time, which meant I didn’t have enough time (or energy) to think about Christmas Eve until mid December! Here’s how to plan a quick, easy and FANTASTIC Christmas Eve Service:

1. Go easy on yourself and your team. There’s no need to learn all new music for Christmas Eve – select favorite Christmas carols and modern Christmas worship songs your congregation has sung during December and repeat them on Christmas Eve. Remember, as worship leaders you may be a little tired of that new Christmas song by your favorite worship leader, but it’s still fresh to the people in your church. Maybe there’s one Christmas song you couldn’t fit into your sets – have someone on your praise team sing that as a special on Christmas Eve.

2. My new Christmas Eve Underscores can tie your songs together and create an instant, fantastic Christmas Eve Service that will sound like you planned it for months.

First, start with each Christmas Eve Underscore and decide which one of your songs thematically can work with it. Since every Underscore comes in every key (both sheet music and tracks) you can easily match the Underscore key to your song. Do this with all five Christmas Eve Underscores and you have your instant Christmas Eve Service. Here’s what your service order might look like:

Song 1: This can be an opener-type song like “O Come O Come Emmanuel” or “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.” In this demo I picked Paul Baloche’s “For Unto Us a Child Is Born” as it matches the text in the Underscore.

Song 2: This Underscore talks about the angel visiting Mary. Choose a song along that theme like “Mary Did You Know” or “What Child Is This.” In this demo I use Tomlin’s “He Shall Reign Forevermore” as it matches the text of the Underscore: “And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”

Song 3: This Underscore talks about Mary and Joseph’s trip to Bethlehem. In the demo I use my HymnCharts arrangement of “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

Song 4: This Underscore is about the shepherds. Use songs like “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks.” In the demo I use my HymnCharts arrangement of “O Come All Ye Faithful (Adore).

Song 5: This Underscore talks about the shepherds visiting the new born king. Use songs like “Go Tell It On The Mountain.” In the demo I use Sidewalk Prophet’s “O What A Glorious Night.”

Sermon

Candlelighting with acapella Silent Night (Use my Worshipscores Silent Night Underscore.)

Final song: Close your Christmas Eve Service with an uplifting, upbeat song like “Joy to the World.” Both Tomlin and Baloche have popular versions in the top 20 at PraiseCharts.

Christmas Eve Underscores give you many options: each Underscore comes with piano and pad sheet music in every key, tracks with vocal narration in every key, and stereo tracks without narration in every key. You can perform the Underscores live with a narrator and piano and add optional synth or even a violin and/or cellist. Or use the MP3 with narration, or use the MP3 track with your own narrator.

Practice! Don’t think you can hand the narrations to your readers ten minutes before your service! Email them the script and MP3 demo at least a few days ahead so they can learn the timing. Have your narrators come to a rehearsal or at least come early before Christmas Eve for a quick run-through.

Download Christmas Eve Underscores exclusively with a Worshipscores.com subscription. There’s nothing like Worshipscores on or off the Internet!