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In the Christian tradition, a nativity scene (also known as a manger scene, crib, crèche ( or ), or in Italian presepio or presepe, or Bethlehem) is the special exhibition, particularly during the Christmastide, of art objects representing the birth of Jesus.Berliner, R. The Origins of the Creche. Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 30 (1946), p. 251. While the term "nativity scene" may be used of any representation of the very common subject of the Nativity of Jesus in art, it has a more specialized sense referring to seasonal displays, in particular sets of individual sculptural figures and props that are arranged for display.
Other characters from the nativity story, such as shepherds, sheep, and angels may be displayed near the manger in a barn (or cave) intended to accommodate farm animals, as described in the Gospel of Luke. A donkey and an ox are typically depicted in the scene, and the Magi and their camels, described in the Gospel of Matthew, are also included. Many also include a representation of the Star of Bethlehem. Several cultures add other characters and objects that may or may not be Biblical.
The first living nativity scene, attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi, occurred in 1223 in the Italian town of Greccio. Francis had been inspired by his visit to the Holy Land, where he had been shown Jesus's traditional birthplace.
Distinctive nativity scenes and traditions have been created around the world, and are displayed during the Christmas season in churches, homes, shopping malls, and other venues, and occasionally on public lands and in public buildings. Nativity scenes have not escaped controversy, and in the United States of America and in secular countries like France, their inclusion on public lands or in public buildings has provoked court challenges.
The first seasonal nativity scene, which seems to have been a dramatic rather than sculptural rendition, is attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi.Dues, Greg. Catholic Customs and Traditions: A Popular Guide Twenty-Third Publications, 2000.Thomas, George F.. Vitality of the Christian Tradition. Ayer Co. Publishing, 1944. Its creation (2025). 9780313340802, ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780313340802 is described by Bonaventure in his Life of Saint Francis of Assisi .
Saint Francis' manger scene is said to have been enacted at Christmas 1223 in a cave near the Sanctuary of Greccio in the Central Italy town of Greccio. The very small chapel where it is said to have taken place survives. The painting over its altar, and others before 1400, by Giotto at the Assisi Lower Church, and by Antonio Vite in Pistoia, depict Saint Francis kneeling and placing a small baby into a chest-like manger. Giotto adds a miniature ox and ass.
A substantial set of stone figures by Arnolfo di Cambio, a leading sculptor of the day, was made for Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome around 1290. The surviving portion includes figures for the Holy Family, the Three Kings, and the ox and ass from the neck up.
The scene's popularity inspired much imitation throughout Christian countries, and in the early modern period sculpted cribs, often exported from Italy, were set up in many Christian churches and homes. (2025). 9780312242251, Macmillan. ISBN 9780312242251 These elaborate scenes reached their artistic apogee in the Papal State, in Emilia, in the Kingdom of Naples and in Genoa. In the tradition of the Moravian Church, nativity scenes have been the center of the Christmas putz, which is "built to tell the Good News of the coming of the Christ Child" and "is the Gospel in miniature from Isaiah’s prophecy and Mary’s annunciation to the visit of the wisemen and the flight into Egypt."
For Moravian Christians, the nativity scene serves to celebrate "the story of the wonder of Christ’s birth so that the Son of God can be welcomed into the hearts of the home at the Christmas." By the end of the 19th century nativity scenes became widely popular in many Christian denominations, and many versions in various sizes and made of various materials, such as terracotta, paper, wood, wax, and ivory, were marketed, often with a backdrop setting of a stable.
Different traditions of nativity scenes emerged in different countries. Hand-painted santons are popular in Provence. In southern Germany, Austria and Trentino-Alto Adige, the wooden figurines are handcut. Colorful szopka are typical in Poland.
In the United States, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City annually displays a Neapolitan Baroque nativity scene before a blue spruce.
The nativity scene may not accurately reflect gospel events. With no basis in the gospels, for example, the shepherds, the Magi, and the ox and asinus may be displayed together at the manger. The art form can be traced back to eighteenth-century Naples. Neapolitan nativity scenes do not represent Bethlehem at the time of Jesus but the life of the Naples of 1700, during the Bourbon period. Families competed with each other to produce the most elegant and elaborate scenes and so, next to the Child Jesus, to the Holy Family and the shepherds, were placed ladies and gentlemen of the nobility, representatives of the bourgeoisie of the time, vendors with their banks and miniatures of cheese, bread, sheep, pigs, ducks or geese, and typical figures of the time like Roma fortune tellers predicting the future, people playing cards, housewives doing shopping, dogs, cats and chickens. "Neapolitan Crib: The crib and 1700s Naples." . CitiesItaly.com. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
An expansive miniature nativity scene is on display at St. Elizabeth's Parish, Dandenong North. Celebrated for its scope and detail, it draws a large audience and has been dubbed the "Australian Nativity Scene". Its creator, artist Wilson Fernandez has been building the traditional nativity scene at St. Elizabeth's Parish since 2003.
To mark its 10th anniversary, Most Reverend Denis Hart Archbishop of Melbourne celebrated the Vigil Mass and blessed the Australian Nativity Scene on Saturday, 14 December 2013. Shalom World, a 24/7, commercial-free Catholic television channel broadcast a live telecast on Australian Nativity Scene on 24 December 2022. On 2 December 2023, Australian Nativity Scene marked its 20 years. To mark this occasion, Peter Comensoli blessed the Australian Nativity Scene. ‘Back in time’: Australian Nativity Scene celebrates 20 years
The issue of cost arose, and paper-cut crèches, "the crèche of the poor", became one major expression, as well as wood-carved ones, some of them complex and detailed. Many major Czech artists, sculptors and illustrators have as a significant part of their legacy the crèches that they created.
The following people are known for creating Czech paper crèches:
The Neapolitan nativity scene is a representation of the birth of Jesus traditionally set in Naples in the 18th century. The Neapolitan crib art has remained unchanged for centuries, becoming part of the most consolidated and followed Christmas traditions of the city. Famous in Naples, in fact, is the well-known via dei presepi (via San Gregorio Armeno) which offers a showcase of all the local crafts concerning the nativity scene.
Moreover, there are numerous city and non-city museums (such as the museum of San Martino or the Royal Palace of Caserta) in which historical pieces or entire scenes set during the birth of Jesus are exhibited.
The city of Tarlac holds an annual competition of giant Belén in a festival known as "Belenismo sa Tarlac".
A life-size nativity scene has been displayed annually at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah for several decades as part of the large outdoor Christmas displays sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Each holiday season, from Light Up Night in November through Epiphany in January, the Pittsburgh Crèche is on display in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh Creche is the world's only authorized replica of the Vatican's Christmas crèche, on display in St. Peter's Square in Rome. Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Art also displays a Naples presepio. The presepio was handcrafted between 1700 and 1830, and re-creates the nativity within a panorama of 18th-century Italian village life. More than 100 human and angelic figures, along with animals, accessories, and architectural elements, cover 250 square feet and create a depiction of the nativity as seen through the eyes of Neapolitan artisans and collectors.
The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, an annual musical holiday stage show presented at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, features a Living Nativity segment with live animals.
In 2005, President of the United States of America, George W. Bush and his wife, First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush displayed an 18th-century Italian presepio. The presepio was donated to the White House in the last decades of the 20th century.Walters, Gary. "Ask the White House" . 2005.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh annually display Neapolitan Baroque nativity scenes which both originated from the collection of Eugenio Catello.
In the United States and Canada Friends of the Creche has over 200 members, with a major conference every two years. FotC maintains a list of permanent exhibits of nativity scenes in the United States and a list of permanent exhibits of nativity scenes in other parts of the world.
The Bavarian National Museum displays a notable collection of nativity scenes from the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries.
Every year in Lanciano, Abruzzo (Italy), a nativity scene exhibition (called in Italian "Riscopriamo il presepe") takes place at Auditorium Diocleziano, usually until 6 January. An average of one hundred nativity scenes are shown, coming from every region of Italy. There are also many nativity scenes made by local kindergarten, primary, secondary and high school. The event is organised by Associazione Amici di Lancianovecchia
Museums dedicated specifically to paper nativity scenes exist in Pečky (Czech Republic).
The tradition in German-speaking countries of depicting black people in the mission money boxes under the name "Nickneger" has been sharply criticized as racist.Klaus Reder: Missionssammeldosen. Eine sachvolkskundliche Betrachtung der sogenannten Nickneger. In: Heidrun Alzheimer, Fred G. Rausch, Klaus Reder, Claudia Selheim (Hrsg.): Bilder – Sachen – Mentalitäten. Arbeitsfelder historischer Kulturwissenschaften. Wolfgang Brückner zum 80. Geburtstag. Schnell und Steiner, Regensburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-7954-2323-0, S. 413–415 and S. 422/423.
In 1969, the American Civil Liberties Union did not want a nativity scene at The Ellipse. After the matter was resolved by the United States Court of Appeals, the nativity scene was not displayed in 1973.Menendez, Albert J.. Christmas in the White House. The Westminster Press, 1983 pp. 51–52.
In 1985, the United States Supreme Court ruled in ACLU v. Scarsdale, New York that nativity scenes on public lands were unconstitutional unless they also displayed non-religious symbols.Comfort, David. Just Say Noel: A History of Christmas from the Nativity to the Nineties. Simon and Schuster, 1995. . This principle was further clarified in 1989, when Pittsburgh attorney Roslyn Litman argued, and the Supreme Court in County of Allegheny v. ACLU ruled, that a crèche placed on the grand staircase of the Allegheny County Courthouse in Pittsburgh, PA violated the Establishment Clause, because the "principal or primary effect" of the display was to advance religion.
In 2006, a lawsuit by the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal organization in the United States, was brought against the state of Washington when it permitted a public display of a holiday tree and a menorah but not a nativity scene. Because of the lawsuit, the decision was made to permit a nativity scene to be displayed in the rotunda of the state Capitol, in Olympia, as long as other symbols of the season were included. "Nonbelievers' sign at Capitol counters Nativity" . Seattle Times. 2 December 2008.
In 2013, Gov. Rick Perry signed into Texas law the Merry Christmas bill which would allow school districts in Texas to display nativity scenes.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) claimed in 2014 that animals in living displays lacked proper care and suffered abuse. In the United States, nativity scenes on public lands and in public buildings have provoked court challenges, and the prankish theft of ceramic or plastic nativity figurines from outdoor displays has become commonplace.[6]
Within the realm of legend, there is speculation that it was in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife, where a nativity scene was first publicly displayed in a private home in Spain. Likewise, the Tenerifean saint Peter of Betancur, a Franciscan and founder of the Bethlehemite Brothers in the 17th century, is credited with being one of the main precursors of nativity scene design in the American lands discovered by the Spanish. This is precisely one of the reasons why this saint is often called the " Saint Francis of Assisi of the Americas".
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