Your Nativity scene needs a re-do.
The first nativity scene didn't appear until 1223.
More than a millennium after Jesus' birth, St. Francis of Assisi received permission from Pope Honorious III to stage the first nativity in an Italian cave. Present were an ox and an ass. By the Late Middle Ages, nativity scenes could be seen throughout Europe.
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The Star of Bethlehem was actually a thing.
The "star," however, was most likely an astrological conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter. Competing theories are that the star was a nova, or new star; a comet; or an aligning of Jupiter with the star Regulus.
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December 25 isn't actually Jesus' birthday.
In fact, the Bible doesn't even indicate the time of the year that Jesus was born. It wasn't until the fourth century that the Church finally decided upon a Dec. 25 Christmas. In 2008, astrologers studying the appearance of the so-called Star of Bethlehem pinpointed a June 17 birthdate.
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Our modern conception of Jesus' birth comes from one chapter in Luke.
The Gospel of Mark avoids the event entirely, while Mark and John start their gospels with Jesus as an adult.
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