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Crèche Course

How the nativity scene, a Christmas staple, has evolved.

Click here to launch a slide show.

Round about Halloween this year, New York's Catholic League sent a letter to the local Department of Education, protesting the ban of Christian Nativity scenes in area schools—where Jewish menorahs and Muslim emblems of Ramadan are permitted. Is this a clear case of discrimination against the majority and favoritism of the minority? Christmas envy? Or is something else going on? In the words of of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ, Superstar (set around a different Christian holiday), "What's the buzz? Tell me what's a-happening?!"

Read the Crèche Course slide-show essay about the Christmas crèche.

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Liesl Schillinger is a New York-based arts writer.