after midnight on Christmas Eve" tradition, alas, I cannot, as Baby Jesus is attached to his manger in every nativity I have, including the main one in the living room. I think it's a neat idea!
to his crib or if he could be taken out of it. Maybe ours was attached too. As far as I know, I think my mom only had one nativity set while we were growing up and I have no idea what happened to it. I assume she took it to Florida when my dad retired. I’m guessing that, when she got older (she did live to almost 100), she stopped wanting to set it up and gifted it to one of her church friends. Maybe my sister knows what happened to it.
Now I do, in fact, place the three kings (wise men, whatever) further away from the nativity as they didn't actually appear the night Jesus was born. Some theological historians suggest the wise men (who are never specified as "kings", nor is there any suggestion in the Bible that there were only 3 of them) didn't appear for months, and maybe even a couple years, after Jesus' birth. However, some people celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6 in honor of the wise men visiting Jesus.
I’ve been in Mexico on Three Kings Day and there are a lot of festivities.
