Theatre has a very close history with religion. It owes its origins to religion. This includes Christianity religion, and it is once more of interest at this time to revisit the links between the theatre and Christmas.
Although the church still actively uses theatre at Christmas, there is immeasurable commercial activity exploiting Christmas theatre. Most of the important theatrical forms and enactments have faded over time.
Much more happens today in film than on the stage and mostly involves drama about the mythology of Christmas, melodramatic plots reflecting the season, a range of commercial productions, or amateur nativity plays, including church theatrics. In film it is a huge lucrative industry.