4 Ways to Appreciate your Volunteers at Christmas

Christmas is my favorite time of year! Whether you know me personally, follow me on social or just read this blog, you should pick up that hint that I love to celebrate Christmas. With Christmas comes a lot of joy and festivities during this holiday season and I am always looking for ways to celebrate and bring the Christmas spirit to life.

One of the things I love to do during this season is to look for opportunities to appreciate and honor the volunteer leadership team I get to do ministry with. There are a variety of different ways you can do this over the holidays. Here are 4 that you can do:

• Handwritten Notes. A simple, easy way to appreciate volunteers over the holidays is to write them notes and let them know why you appreciate them and how much they mean to you and your ministry. Handwritten is best because it shows them that you took the time to think about them and write them a note. After all, in this digital and online world, most everything people get these days are typed or texted. That is why a handwritten note is especially encouraging. To learn more about the value of a handwritten note, check out this podcast I did with Chad Booher.
• Gifts. When you give your leaders a gift, that goes a long way for them feeling appreciated. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, but I have regularly given volunteer leaders $25-$50 Visa/Mastercard gift cards or to malls before. The more “generic” you can make the gift card the better because not everyone will like Starbucks…I’m not sure how that person is but there are people out there supposedly.
• A Christmas Party/Dinner. Christmas time is a great time of year to do a house party with all the volunteers as a time for fun and dinner celebrating the first half the year. I actually love to host the entire team at my house and do a big dinner and celebration. But you don’t to do it in a house. I have done these dinners at restaurants as well. Whatever you choose to do, this is a fun way to appreciate and honors the volunteer team.
• Time off. It’s a busy time of year and volunteer leaders have personal lives as well. They may need to attend a work party, family function or other event in the month of December. That is why giving them flexibility and some time off, if needed, is great. Regardless of the flexibility provided in the month of December, giving them the week off in between Christmas and New Years is always a good idea. After all, you go, go, go throughout whole year, it’d be nice for them to have at least some flexibility and a week off in December.

These are four different ways you can choose to appreciate you volunteer team during the Christmas season. You can do some of these, all of these or none of these. After all, there are a variety of other opportunities for you. See what works best for your team and do that. The main encouragement and challenge here is to use the holiday season and the festivities that are a natural part of it to appreciate the team of people that are so important to you and the ministry. The more creative and specific you cam make it to the team the more effective it will be and inspiring for the volunteers to keep going hard into the new year. And, the more inspired and encouraged they are headed into the new year, the more potential impact your ministry has.

What do you think? How do you appreciate and honor your volunteer team around Christmas?  Share your experiences below or on social media using #ymsidekick when you share.

Want to learn digital tools to expand your reach in ministry? Join the Digital Bootcamp Facebook Group!