The Nativity Scene You Know—And The One You Don’t

2025-12-22

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You see it on Christmas cards, in shop windows and at your local church. The nativity scene is everywhere at this time of year. But the scene you know of Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus in the manger, with some animals around is actually thanks to some mistranslations and a popular saint in the Middle Ages who wanted to imprint the story of the birth of Christ into people’s memory. Art historian Mary McGillivray tells Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole) about the first nativity play and why its tableau has...

You see it on Christmas cards, in shop windows and at your local church. The nativity scene is everywhere at this time of year.

But the scene you know of Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus in the manger, with some animals around is actually thanks to some mistranslations and a popular saint in the Middle Ages who wanted to imprint the story of the birth of Christ into people’s memory.

Art historian Mary McGillivray tells Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole) about the first nativity play and why its tableau has lasted over 800 years.

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