THE TWELVE CLIPS OF CHRISTMAS - DAY 1: SILENT NIGHT (GOAT EDITION)

Advent has come to an end and Christmas is upon us. So join us, will you, in singing along to that perennial classic, Silent Night...

Sorry, my neighbor recently picked up a few more goats and one of them is a screamer. After one too many blood curdling shrieks in the middle of the night, I have goat on the brain. Besides, animals are just as much a part of the Christmas story as Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, right? Oddly enough, no. Even though animals are almost always included in nativity scenes, there are none mentioned in the infancy narrative in the Bible. Not a one.

Then why are there always animals in nativity scenes? Well, apparently it started with a 3rd century homily by early Church father Origen. He suggested that the birthplace of Christ was the same one referenced in Isaiah 1:3, where it states, "An ox knows its owner, and an ass, its master’s manger." Once that link was established, it quickly became a tradition to include an ox and an ass in artwork depicting Jesus' birth. And when St. Francis put together the first live nativity scene, sure enough, an ox and an ass were included. St. Bonaventure describes it this way...

"It happened in the third year before his death, that in order to excite the inhabitants of Grecio to commemorate the nativity of the Infant Jesus with great devotion, [St. Francis] determined to keep it with all possible solemnity; and lest he should be accused of lightness or novelty, he asked and obtained the permission of the sovereign Pontiff. Then he prepared a manger, and brought hay, and an ox and an ass to the place appointed."

Hey, if St. Francis says it's okay to have animals at the nativity, it has to be okay. So, have a very goat Christmas everyone. Christ the Savior is born.