Outdoor Christmas Creche

This Outdoor Christmas Creche
is part of the 27� Fontanini Masterpiece Collection. It measures 37� tall, 48� wide, and 24.5� deep. All wood frame. Perfect for your church or institution yard decoration. Figures not included.

Adeste Fideles, also known as �O come all ye Faithful�, is a traditional tune first written in 1742 by John Francis Wade.
John Francis Wade was born about 1711, in England. He was a Catholic layman who fled England due to religious persecution and settled in Douai, France. He made his living, there, by copying and selling plain chant and other music. He also taught music at the English College and produced beautiful copies of chant and hymn manuscripts for local chapels and private use. His famous �Adeste Fideles� appears to have been written by at least 1743, and possibly as early as 1740.
The hymn has been translated into English many times. The most popular is by an English priest, Frederick Oakeley. He was born September 5, 1802, in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. His father was Charles Oakeley, governor of Madras. Frederick attended Christ Chruch, Oxford, and took Holy Orders with the Church of England in 1828. By 1839, he was preaching at the Margaret Street Chapel, in London. There, in 1841, he translated the Latin hymn Adeste Fideles into English. Select this link to view our angel German glass ornaments.

The Christmas Crib: In the year 1220 St, Francis of Assissi visited Bethlehem. He liked the way the Christmas was celebrated there so much, that he asked the Pope for permission to recreate it in his own Italian village.
He built a manger in a cave. In it he placed a stone image of the baby Jesus. He surrounded the manger with real animals. Then he said a Mass (communion). The people found it so moving that they said it was possible to believe you were there at the actual birth of Jesus.
Before long, wooden nativity scenes were displayed in churches and homes across Europe. Today they continue to be popular as a way of reminding us of what Christmas is really about, the birth of Jesus.
The tradition was brought into Spain from Naples during the reign of Charles III of Spain. In Catalonia, a figure is included that represents a Catalan peasant. In Provence, in the South of France, nativity scenes are sometimes made up of hundreds of small painted clay figurines called Santon. They represent all the traditional trades and professions of old Provence. Because of their cultural value the Santons are often collected as art or craft objects, regardless of their possible use in a nativity scene.
A nativity scene, also called a crib or cr�che, generally depicts the birth or birthplace of Jesus. Nativity scenes, in two dimensions or three, usually show Jesus in a manger, with Joseph, and Mary in a barn intended for the housing of animals. A mule, ox, sheep, and sometimes other barnyard animals, surround them. The scene sometimes includes three wise men, shepherds, angels and the Star of Bethlehem. Select this link to view our nativity Christmas ornaments.