Note that in this nativity story, there’s no mention of kings. That’s because they don’t come along in the story until Epiphany, which comes after Christmas. Epiphany lasts for twelve days after Jesus’s birth, which is where the twelve days of Christmas come from.
It’s also interesting that the story in Luke makes no mention of how many shepherds are involved. We usually have three in the nativity scenes, likely because it lends some aesthetic balance to the setting. But it’s not biblically based.
Finally, if you see a nativity set—especially at a church—with Jesus in the manger before Christmas, think about how weird that is.
If the point of Christmas is to celebrate the arrival, and if Advent is about the anticipation leading up to that birth, shouldn’t the manger be empty until Christmas day, much like we depict an empty cross on Easter? Sometimes it’s worth getting a new perspective on our traditions in order to help bring us more into the present moment so we really see what’s in front of us, engaging it with our whole selves rather than letting ourselves get half-numb to the familiarity of it all.
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