This is my favorite Christmas story because, until I heard it, I had never thought about the innkeeper. The innkeeper isn't part of most Nativity sets. I haven't heard any carols about the innkeeper. There don't seem to be any paintings that include him, either.

As I grew up and went into ministry I got a bit bothered by the purée of Gospel that is the typical church nativity play. But this week, I went to a Christmas Program and nativity play at my son's parochial school, and I survived.

The danger of the Christmas story is that it is so familiar that we can lose the amazing impact of its glorious message in the frenzy that surrounds the event.

My mother always taught us that no one should be alone at Christmas. We must expect miracles and mysteries. The gifts of her Christmas were peanut but...

Our over-familiarity with the nativity story can make us just as blind to the inherent meaning it contains. The result is often nativity scenes that bear little resemblance to the powerful events they attempt to represent.

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has happily accepted a donated Nativity scene for St. Peter's Square this Christmas after a previous setup costing (E...

There are a lot of roads to Bethlehem. Some are crowded. Some are angry. Some cost a lot. And some are forgettable. But then there's the Advent road.

The holy family depicted here endured struggles, as modern families do, and they met those struggles with faith and perseverance and obtained the peace, if only fleeting, that we see in this painting.

The traditional depiction of the birth of Jesus takes a chocolatey twist in Lima, Peru. ...

Today, January 6, Orthodox Christians celebrate another of the Twelve Great Feasts of the Christian Church -- the Theophany, or, as it is also called, the Epiphany.

It is quite possible as a Christian to believe Jesus had a biological father and believe the story of the virgin conception says something important. It all depends on what you think "virgin" means.

Of all the characters who appear in the Gospel accounts of Jesus' birth, the "Three Wise Men" are by far the most fascinating. Who were these mysterious foreigners? Where did they come from? What was their star? And were there even three of them?