Christmas is the time that Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. No one actually knows which date, or even which year, Jesus was born. So in different parts of the world, it is celebrated on different days. But that doesn't matter - it is not the date, but the story that matters.

The Nativity means the story of the birth of Jesus. Another way of saying that is to call it the Christmas Story.

It is hard to imagine Christmas without the story of the birth of Jesus, the manger, the Three Wise Men, the shepherds, the Star and so many other things. For Christians, it is one of the most important stories ever told.

Down the ages, people have told and retold the story, adding their own ideas to it, so that, today, it can be hard to work out what happened where and when.

Partly this is because we have more than one version of the Christmas story in the New Testament. This is simply because the Gospels were written by people many years after the events happened, and, of course, at the time, no one knew the events were about to take place – and as they took place among poor people, no one bothered about them at all – until their deep importance sank in.

The video below is an introduction to Christmas. The audio is a read-aloud of the book 'Spots for Christmas'.