Shakespeare has received the treatment. So has Dickens. Now the Christmas story is to be presented in a drastically reduced form in an attempt to reach a young audience, it was announced today.

Young people are to be encouraged to tell the Christmas story in under 30 seconds – with a prize of £500 for the best entry – in a competition launched by the Churches' Advertising Network (CAN).

The competition has been announced alongside CAN radio advertisements to be broadcast in December presenting the Christmas story in the style of horse racing and football commentaries.

Francis Goodwin, chairman of the network, an ecumenical group of Christian communicators, said they were campaigning against attempts to rebrand Christmas as a "winter festival show".

He said: "Political correctness has gone mad when some people are afraid to use the word Christmas, or stop Nativity plays in schools, or to even use Jesus' name.

"It is important for the churches to fight back and re-establish in this generation the wonderful story of the Nativity.

"We hope youngsters will write, text, record, video, paint the Christmas story in under 30 seconds.

"This campaign and the competition will be a catalyst for churches to get involved all over the country.

"We hope they will use this to reach out to a new generation that often isn't being brought up with the message of hope embodied in the news of Jesus' birth at the heart of the Christmas story."

Research conducted last year showed just 12 per cent of Britons have a detailed knowledge of the Nativity dropping to seven per cent of under 18-24 year olds.

Other controversial campaigns launched by CAN in the run-up to Christmas have included a poster depicting Jesus as the revolutionary leader Che Guevara and one suggesting that Mary was having a "bad hair day" when she discovered she was pregnant.

All entries for the competition must be received before November 30. The CAN website can be found at www.churchads.org.uk