Our church has free tickets for concerts - it’s necessary to limit the size of the size of the attendance to the capacity of the room. We do take donations, but that doesn’t come close to covering the expenses.
On the other hand, the local Baptist megachurch has always charged admission, but they have live animals, and angels sailing out over the audience suspended from tracks in the ceiling. They probably have more cast members than we have seating capacity.
Suspended from tracks in the ceiling? Can't we just have the kids dressed up as Mary, Joseph, the wise men and some shepherds with maybe a baby doll for Jesus or even someone's kid baby brother?
Those were always adorable.