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The church that I attend celebrates both seasons mostly equally, though with a slightly different focus. In this VERY secular country, Canada (and somewhat similarity, the US), we celebrate Santa Claus, 'peace on Earth', the 'magic' of Christmas and spending great piles of money on useless gifts, while obsessively avoiding 'the reason for the season', Jesus' birth, as foretold by several prophets in the Old Testament.

Because so many people now attend church only once each year at Christmas time, often just to satisfy mom and dad, or grandma and grandpa, my church uses Christmas as a time to evangelise the 'unchurched', those that do not know, or have walked away from '(dis)organised religion'.

This weekend, the church does its Christmas production, '[Work] In Progress: A Christmas Story'. The production focuses on the 'why' that we need a Saviour, rather than a large number of carols and the Christmas story from Luke and Matthew. With a 75 member choir, a 60 member orchestra, a large number of worship singers and musicians and a large drama team, Centre Street Church's Christmas production draws many people to the church who would otherwise never enter a church. The last presentation is at 5:55PM (MST) and may be viewed over the internet http://csc.churchonline.org.

In addition to five presentations this weekend, the last being at 5:55 PM (MST), there are five Christmas Eve services, focused on why each one of us needs a Saviour. Again, like the Christmas production, the focus is on the unchurched, especially those who come to church because of 'tradition'. As a follow-up, years ago, the Pastor did a 10 part sermon series on 'Why Believe?', in essence, an apologetics series for those who are 'seeking' or new to faith in Jesus. This follow-up series is offered on video, begining in January, focusing on people new to the faith. It goes well with Alpha courses.

While the Easter production and Easter services do have a focus on evangelising to the unchurched, there is more of a focus on those who believe, because secular society has mostly ignored Easter while turning Christmas into a secular holiday where 'love' is measured in how much you spend. Church is seen as 'tradition', so provides more of an opportunity to evangelise to the 'unchurched'.