IStock Photo 11379110 © Marbury

Whether or not you dream of sugarplums on Christmas Eve, you’ll probably want coffee on Christmas morning. Celebrating Santa’s arrival requires early morning energy, and there’s a good chance you’ll have had a late night at church. In fact, there’s an equally good chance. An adult is as likely to drink coffee in a day as to plan to attend a Christian service on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day: 1 in 1.75 (57%).

For many adults, going to church is not a common occurrence. Between 1991 and 2004, the number of US adults who did not attend church nearly doubled from 39 million to 75 million. Nevertheless, a US adult who celebrates Christmas is about three times more likely to treat it as a religious holiday (1 in 1.41—71%) than as a secular holiday (1 in 4.35). And 1 in 12.5 US adults consider attending religious services and celebrating the birth of Christ to be the most enjoyable part of the holiday season.

With these holiday congregants in mind, many churches—Catholic, Protestant, and Anglican—offer a Christmas Eve or Christmas service that alternates between readings and songs. Although many consider this format to be “traditional” for the holiday, this type of service dates back more than a century.

Dean Eric Milner-White arranged the first service of Nine Lessons and Carols, held in the chapel of the King’s College at the University of Cambridge in 1918, just one month after the end of World War I. But his inspiration had come from an 1880 service by Edward White Benson, given in a church which was a simple wooden shed. The point was not the grandeur of the surroundings, the beauty of candles, or the lingering vibrato of the “O Holy Night” soloist (which, for the record, was written decades earlier in France by a wine commissioner and a Jewish composer). Milner-White wanted to replicate a simple service that showed God’s love “through the windows and words of the Bible."

The King’s Chapel Christmas program prevailed throughout the 20th century. The BBC and its international affiliates have broadcast the service around the world every year since the 1930s, and every year parishioners in Cambridge line up as early as 7 a.m. to attend the afternoon service. Those “queuing” prior to 9 a.m. are usually admitted, but admission is never a guarantee.

Those early risers might enjoy a morning coffee. Then again, being British, they may prefer a cup of tea.