Christmas in September 2026

Send a Card

Before uploading your photo, consider adding a festive Christmas design. Free online tools such as Adobe Express and Canva offer customizable Christmas card templates that allow you to add your own photos and graphics easily. You may also upload a digital version of your family’s printed Christmas card.

Blessing Our Missionary Families

Every September, our church starts thinking about Christmas. It might seem early, but it’s how we intentionally care for our missionaries, many of whom spend the holidays in circumstances unlike anything most of us will ever experience.

For believers, Christmas is a time to reflect on the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, but for many of us it is also a season with a slower pace of life and more quality time with family—time that’s often shaped by cherished traditions built over many years.

For missionaries, Christmas can look quite different. The moment they move to their country of service, their traditions and family time begin to change. Their first Christmases abroad are spent forging new relationships and building new traditions from scratch, often across a language barrier, far from everything familiar. In places where Christmas is celebrated, the missionary family must also learn the Christmas traditions of their host country.

Over time, missionary families adapt to their new culture. The loneliness that can be sharp in those early years fades into the background—though it never fully disappears. Even years later, it can linger in memories of how the Christmas season used to look. Yet, their experience testifies again and again that while family may be far away, the Lord provides abundant blessings on the field.

One of the blessings our missionaries eagerly anticipate each year is “Christmas in September.” CIS is our annual campaign to care for our missionaries through two tangible expressions of love: Christmas cards filled with encouragement and financial gifts as a token of the church’s support.

Picture a missionary family on Christmas morning, thousands of miles from us, gathered around as they read cards from members of Grace Community Church. Often these cards are hung on the refrigerator or the wall as reminders of our partnership with them in gospel ministry. Our financial gifts support them still further. For some families, a gift means presents under the tree for their kids. For others, it provides a few days away as a family to rest before ministry resumes in January.

One family used their gift toward a dining room table so they could open their home and practice hospitality with church members and unbelieving friends God had placed around them. Whether through a card on the fridge or a table full of guests discussing biblical truth, our expressions of care have a great impact on our missionaries’ lives and ministries.

Each year, we try to get an “early” start to Christmas because we want to be best positioned to care for our families overseas during a season when our encouragement and support are especially timely. As we reflect on the sacrifices made by those who serve Christ abroad, please prayerfully consider how you might participate in these two ways this Christmas season:

1. Sending a Christmas Card:

• Visit gracechurch.org/sendacard to write a personalized card online, with the option of including a photo of your family.
• Visit the Christmas in September table on GraceWalk on any Sunday from August 30 through September 27, and pick up a physical card to write to a missionary family.

2. Giving a Financial Gift:

You may drop off your gift at the Patio table or give online.