A Christmas nativity scene is a depiction of the birth of Christ from the Christmas story or other scenes from the life of Jesus Christ, usually represented by figures in a model landscape of Bethlehem. The nativity scenes connect the imagery of the Advent season with the Feast of the Epiphany. Today's nativity scenes trace back to early Christianity, but the representations from the first centuries only showed the infant Jesus (lying in the manger according to the Gospel of Luke) with the two animals, the ox and the donkey. The figure of Mary was only added in the Middle Ages, and St. Joseph came even later. The royal conservator at the Bavarian National Museum, Georg Hager, describes in this volume the history of the nativity scene, Tyrolean, Munich, and Tölz nativity scenes, Italian nativity scenes, and more. Illustrated with 64 text illustrations. Reprint.