To bring the old year to an end and begin the new one with an artistic flourish, I'm adding a quartet of Nativity scenes by international artmakers in the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection to the "Before the Marvel of This Night" gallery of the Themes of Faith section. They range from a modern-day example of an ancient Asian craft to a minimalist woodblock collection from a West European designer. Following clockwise from the upper left, the rainbow-bright, wide-eyed figurines in a Christmas scene by an unknown Indian artisan are molded out of papier mache, a mixture of shredded paper with glue or paste, brought by Persians to the Asian subcontinent in the 14th century. Rolls of magazine pages serve as the building blocks for a stable in Bethlehem, handcrafted in Vietnam for REECII, a Texas-based art and decor importer. African artists with disabilities created the brilliantly-clothed ensemble in a Nativity set from the Nuru workshop in Tanzania. German Designer Oliver Fabel followed the route of "less is more" in a nursery room-styled manger scene composed of similarly sized wooden blocks stamped with the names in German of all the actors and animals in more traditional Christmas displays. I wish friends of the website a peaceful Christmas and a hope-filled New Year! (John Kohan)