We’re all familiar with the lead roles in the story of the nativity: Jesus, Mary and Joseph take centre stage, ringed by shepherds and their sheep. The humble, gentle and exhausted donkey munches quietly to the rear as a host of angels descend from the heavens, and Three Wise Man arrive late to the party.

But what about the supporting cast? Who else was at the scene that night and what other characters do we see in Christmas cribs?

The midwife

It would be a foolhardy man whose betrothed was expecting their first child, and yet chose to be unsupported for the birth. It’s likely therefore that Joseph would have sought help and a midwife is commonly depicted in Eastern Orthodox icons of the nativity. The apocryphal Gospel of James suggests two women were present at Jesus’ birth: Salome, mother of the apostles James and John, and an associate midwife, often referred to as Emea. Together they appeared in medieval nativity plays and were recorded in religious art, often the bathing the baby Jesus.

Gozo’s Bethlehem in Għajnsielem

The people in the town and at the inn

Joseph and Mary stayed in a stable because there was no room at the inn. Who were the lively patrons at the tavern already, dining together with hearty laughter while, perhaps, a minstrel plays a lively tune? As a census was the reason for Joseph’s return to his hometown, the inn was likely to be full of people from all walks of like visiting the town for the same reason. They, and the people of Bethlehem too, would surely have headed to the manger once the sky above was filled with light from the star of wonder and the songs of a celestial choir.

These villagers populate many of today’s cribs, in our homes and also in Gozo’s Bethlehem in Għajnsielem attraction (opens from December 15). In both, you’ll find the baker, the blacksmith and the carpenter and even a pasturi maker, making traditional clay statuettes for household scenes. Look out for fishermen too on a brightly coloured luzzu bobbing on a custom-built lake and even a scattering of Roman soldiers.

Look out for fishermen too on a brightly coloured luzzu bobbing on a custom-built lake and even a scattering of Roman soldiers

Other biblical characters

Crib. Photo: David Debono

Although the villain of the piece, King Herod makes the occasional appearance in nativity plays. St Francis of Assisi, too, although he lived 1200 years after Jesus, can sometimes be spotted, marking his part in our ongoing crib tradition. It was with permission from Pope Honorius III, in 1223, it was St Francis who presented the first-ever live nativity recreation to the people of Greccio in Italy. Inspired by a visit to the holy site of Christ’s birth, he was keen to recreate the experience for those who were not able to make the journey themselves. He’d surely be surprised and thrilled to see himself appearing in them in miniature many centuries on!

The Little Drummer Boy

Christmas carols also place other unexpected characters at Jesus’s birth and the words of The Little Drummer Boy describe a ‘poor boy’ summoned to the nativity by the Magi. His gift to baby Jesus was the playing of his drum to the best of his ability. Despite the song’s popularity, the story of the drummer boy is not biblically accurate. It does however remind us that sometimes the best gift we can give someone is simply a gesture of love.

The three ships

Another popular carol, ‘I saw three ships come sailing in’ which dates back to the 17th century, yet Bethlehem is landlocked in the Judean mountains, 75km from the Mediterranean and 30km from the Dead Sea. The lyrics ask ‘And what was in those ships all three, on Christmas Day in the morning?’ The answer is perhaps gold, frankincense and myrrh the song may refer to the ‘ships of the desert’ or the majestic, long-legged camels, adorned with colourful blankets and tassels, whose swaying gait transported the wiseman across the desert to the manger. (Other sources, however, suggest the song refers to the purported relics of the Three Wise Men to Cologne Cathedral in the 12th century.)

Either way, while we would all agree that there won’t have been any sea-going galleons crib-side in the stable, there are sometimes some surprises in the more off-beat depictions of the nativity.

Esther’s fish. Painting by Melanie Charles

The Lobster and the Octopus

We know that Love Actually isn’t biblically accurate, but who can forget Emma Thomson’s daughter announcing that she’s the lobster in the school nativity play or David, Natalie’s Octopus Brother sandwiched in the car between Hugh Grant and Martine McCutcheon when we’re well on the way to the film’s finale? And while we’re all pretty sure that there won’t have been many marine creatures gathering around the newborn in Bethlehem, I hear tell that over in Għarb, in a private home, there’s a crib in an aquarium where a tiny baby Jesus is entertained by the pretty fish flickering past his underwater manger.