Christmas Eve is December 24, and is frequently celebrated in an evening service. It often includes “lessons and carols” and sometimes a story that conveys the spirit of Christmas. Some Unitarian Universalist congregations include a candle-lighting ritual in the service, in which the church lights are dimmed and people pass a flame from candle to candle until everyone is holding a lit candle.
Unlike many Christian faiths, Unitarian Universalists rarely hold special services on Christmas Day, December 25.
Faith Without Borders
For everything there is a season—a time to die and a time to be born. With the arrival of winter’s low dark sky, communities around the world look to the miracle of light as a sign of rebirth and a source of hope. We celebrate the promise of new life and recommit ourselves to the protection of everyone’s right to his or her own radiant humanity.
Celebrating the winter holidays, thus, is an excellent opportunity for Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregations to express their commitment to our Sixth Principle: We covenant to affirm and promote the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all.
From Tapestry of Faith Curricula
Unitarian Universalist Perspectives
- In “Ghosts of Unitarian Christmas” Doug Muder updates Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Instead of visiting Ebenezer Scrooge, the three ghosts of Christmases past, present, and future visit Ben, a crotchety UU.
- Other UU World Articles on Christmas
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Emmanuel means "God is with us." Who is your Emmanuel? Who is your "God is with us," the one you were promised, the one you have been waiting for? For the ancient prophet Isaiah, he was a boy soon to be born who would guide the people of Judah back to peace and harmony with God....Meditation | By Sarah Movius Schurr | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Advent, Beauty, Belief, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Direct Experience, God, Listening, Searching, Tradition, Transcendence, Winter Solstice / Yule, Wonder -
On a foggy Christmas Eve, Santa realized Rudolph could make the difference in guiding the sleigh.Meditation | By Edward Harris | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Christmas Eve / Christmas, Secular, Service, Teamwork -
Now is the moment of magic, when the whole, round earth turns again toward the sun....Meditation | By Victoria Safford | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Awe, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Connections, Earth-Centered, Gratitude, Hanukkah, IllUUmination, Kwanzaa, Love, Winter Solstice / Yule, Wonder -
Why Christmas? Especially to one who doubts? Are you not being hypocritical? Unitarian Universalists, with their penchant for secular humanism are fond of arguing the validity of Christmas: Is it a Christian holiday? A pagan holiday? A secular holiday?...Opening | By Lenny Scovel | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Christmas Eve / Christmas
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Trees of Earth let bud your leaves let them open wide let them gently fall in annual cycle. Let fallen leaves make soft bed for Jesus at his birth and may leafy humus make renewal of our humanity....Meditation | By Andrew M Hill | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas
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Space-hanging Earth, fragile as a Christmas babe delicate as a Christmas Tree ornament: nurture us as a mother nurtures children, like Mary nursing Jesus. Forgive our hurtful ways. Help us to fairer sharing. And so may you sustain all earth's children and all earth's beings even your Earthly self...Meditation | By Andrew M Hill | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Christmas Eve / Christmas, Earth-Centered, Winter Solstice / Yule
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Spirit of Life, The beginning of the holiday season is filled with temptations to conspicuous consumptions, and pleas for generosity. The contrasts between the values represented by this time of year, and our ability to fulfill them, remind us how great the distance can be between aspirations and...Prayer | By Wayne B. Arnason | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Advent, Balance, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Hanukkah, Patience, Service, Unitarian Universalism, Vulnerability, Winter Solstice / Yule
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No one is ever really ready for Christmas....Meditation | By Maureen Killoran | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Connections, Direct Experience, Love, Patience
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Advent, adventus, means waiting. And the holiday season is nothing if not waiting—to get done the chores; to find the right gift; to find time for quiet moments; to accept that our loved ones will not be as we wish them to be....Chalice Lighting | By David Breeden | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Advent, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Forgiveness, Generosity, Hope, Justice, Love, Patience, Peace, Strength, Winter, Wisdom -
Not gold, nor myrrh, nor even frankincense would I have for you this season, but simple gifts, the ones that are hardest to find, the ones that are perfect, even for those who have everything (if such there be). I would (if I could) have for you the gift of courage, the strength to face the...Meditation | By Maureen Killoran | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Acceptance, Challenge, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Community, Connections, Courage, Generosity, Hope, Presence, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Simplicity, Strength, Winter Solstice / Yule
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When we scale, at last, the walls...Reading | By Jeffrey B Symynkywicz | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas
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Let us join our hearts and minds together in the spirit of meditation and prayer. May these moments of quiet lead us to the heart of the season, which is peace. May we breathedeeply of peace in this quiet place, relax into its warmth, know we are safe here, and let us open our hearts to the...Meditation | By Christine Robinson | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Christmas Eve / Christmas
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Holy One, known by many names -- Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer -- you make your presence known to us in the sunshine of winter, in the dance of the flame, and in the lingering embrace of a trusted one. Fill us this day with your warmth, your power, your strength. Help us to see our lives with a...Prayer | By Marta Flanagan | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Advent, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Freedom, Gratitude, Letting Go, Purpose, Sacred, Winter Solstice / Yule
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Great Rainbow Arch your bright light your seven colours your cool dew link sky and earth above the Christmas stable. Hold us all in your encompassing arms. Forgive our exclusion of others earth and life and child. So may we too forgive those who have excluded us. Save us from the darkness of deep...Meditation | By Andrew M Hill | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Awe, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Earth, Earth-Centered, Forgiveness, Nature, Presence, Transcendence, Winter Solstice / Yule -
We are in the midst of the season of celebration. Celebrations: Of the birth of new hope, Of the festival of lights, Of the triumph of freedom. The darkness of the year is lifting and the time of light grows longer. We have gathered with an anticipation of hope for peace on earth and in our homes.Meditation | By Elizabeth M Strong | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Awe, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Ending, Hanukkah, Hope, Letting Go, New Year, Searching, Unitarian Universalism, Winter Solstice / Yule
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When I was a child, the day after Thanksgiving was steeped in ritual. Every year my family would travel to Chicago for the holiday festivities. Our tour was always the same: We'd tromp up and down Michigan Ave., admiring store windows with animated mechanical dolls that served as actors for the...Meditation | By Kaaren Solveig Anderson | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Christmas Eve / Christmas, Generosity, Humility, Service