Christmas Errors

I love seeing Christmas pageants and cards showing illustrations of the Nativity, but most of them are just, plain, inaccurate.

In the first place, the Holy family were all middle Easterners with tan skin and dark brown hair.

Mary couldn’t have been wearing a blue robe, because blue dye was expensive and only wealthy people could afford it.

The manger wasn’t a tiny box to hold the baby. Mary had to lie down in the manger to give birth to her baby, so it would have been big.

And the wise men from the East didn’t come to the stable, but to the house where the family was staying. I guess after paying their taxes most people had gone home, so there was room for the family to find housing until Mary was recovered enough to go home. 

Of course she went to Egypt instead, but that’s another story.

But I still enjoy seeing the pageants, especially when performed by kids, and the lovely cards..