Don't unpublish Christmas: give your church's annual events a permanent page

Every January, a lot of church websites quietly delete Christmas. The page with the service times comes down, or gets unpublished so it doesn't clutter the site, and next fall someone builds a fresh one at a new address. Easter gets the same treatment in the spring.

We understand the instinct. Nobody wants a visitor landing on December service times in March. But taking the page down costs more than it saves, and the fix is simple: give each big annual event one permanent page and update it every year.

What you lose when the page comes down

A page that has been around for a few seasons builds up history. Other sites link to it: the local news roundup of Christmas Eve services, a neighborhood Facebook group, last year's email newsletter, the QR code on a printed flyer. Search engines notice those links and how people use the page, and over time it starts to rank for searches like "Christmas Eve services near me."

When you unpublish it, all of that points to a dead end. Every one of those links becomes a "page not found." A few broken links won't sink a site, but a steady pattern of pages appearing and disappearing makes it harder for search engines to trust what you've got. And a brand-new page at a new address starts from zero, a few weeks before one of the busiest search seasons a church has all year.

We worked through this with a multi-campus church as their team planned how seasonal pages should work going forward. Craig Van Korlaar, our UX lead, put the goal plainly: "You really want these to be pages that someone, if somebody searches in Google for [your city] Christmas services, even if it's July, they'll find."

One address per event, updated every year

The pattern is the same for any event that comes back every year:

• Pick a short, permanent address: /christmas, /easter, /vbs, /missions-conference. Leave the year out of the URL.
• Keep the page published all year.
• When the season ends, edit the page instead of hiding it.
• When the next season's plans are set, update the same page again.

The off-season version can be short. Something like "Christmas Eve 2026 services were held December 24. Check back in the fall for this year's times," plus a sentence about what Christmas at your church is like and a link to your regular Sunday information. Someone who lands there in July learns that you're real, what to expect, and when to come back.

Do put the year on the page itself, even though it stays out of the URL. Our advice to that same church was to write something like "this year's dates coming soon" or label last year's details clearly as last year's. A visitor who sees "December 24, 2026" knows the page is current, and doesn't have to wonder whether you just forgot to update it.

This applies to events that come back every year. Weekly Bible studies and monthly gatherings don't need their own pages; their details belong on your calendar and the relevant ministry page.

Where the calendar fits

Most churches also want Christmas services on the calendar, so they show up in event listings, filters and ministry pages. That's fine. The calendar entry and the permanent page can work together.

Create the calendar event with just enough to display well in a listing (title, date, image, ministry or campus) and point it at the permanent page. Depending on your platform, that's a link on the event or a redirect from the event's address to /christmas. Either way, a visitor who clicks Christmas Eve on your calendar ends up on the one page that has the full details, and you only maintain those details in one place.

If you're a multi-campus church, check whether each campus gets its own copy of the event at its own address. If it does, each of those needs to point to the permanent page too. It's tedious, but it's a one-time job each season.

When a redirect is the right call

Sometimes the damage is already done: you have /christmas-2023, /christmas-2024 and /christmas-eve-services floating around in old emails and search results. Choose one permanent address, move the current content there, and redirect each old address to it. A permanent (301) redirect tells search engines the page has moved and passes along most of what the old page had earned.

Redirect old addresses one step, straight to the final page. Chains where /christmas-2023 goes to /christmas-2024, which goes to /christmas, slow things down and can break. And if you rename an event, say "Christmas Eve Services" becomes "Christmas at [Church]," keep the same address if you can. If you can't, redirect the old one.

What to put on the page

Write for someone who has never been to your church and is deciding between you and two others. During the season, the page should answer:

• When and where. Every service time, grouped by campus if you have more than one. Note which services are livestreamed, which are traditional or contemporary, and which ones fill up early.
• What to expect. How long the service runs, whether there's candlelight or communion, what people typically wear.
• Kids. Is there childcare, or are kids in the service? Is there a family-friendly service time? For parents of young children, this can decide where they go.
• Parking and arrival. Where to park, which entrance to use, how early to arrive on a crowded night, and whether there's overflow seating.
• Accessibility. Accessible parking and entrances, seating, hearing assistance, and whether there's a quieter service for people who find crowds hard.

The off-season version keeps the "what to expect" material and swaps the specifics for "check back."

Start earlier than feels necessary

Search engines don't re-read your site the moment you hit save. If this year's times go up the week before Christmas, search results may still show last year's details when people are actually looking. Updating the page as soon as plans are firm, ideally by early November for Christmas and several weeks out for Easter, gives search engines time to catch up.

While you're at it, update your Google Business Profile. Add special hours for Christmas Eve and Easter weekend, and put your service times in a post that links to the permanent page. For a lot of people searching on their phones, that listing is the first thing they see, before they ever reach your site.

Your to-do list for this week

Search your own site for "Christmas" and "Easter." If you find several pages from different years, or none at all because they're unpublished, pick a permanent address, bring the page back, update it for this year, and redirect the old ones. Then add this year's times and fill in your Google Business Profile.

If you'd like a second set of eyes on how your site handles seasonal events, or anything else, we're glad to do a free website review.