ROOMS AT THE INN
Perhaps unusually, but this year, unsurprisingly, at the beginning of November, there was plenty of accommodation still to be had in Bethlehem, the spot south of Jerusalem that is alleged to be the site of the inn that was full at the time of the first Christmas.
On that occasion, the Holy Family were put up in an adjacent stable where, no crib for a bed, the little lord Jesus lay down his sweet head.
Today, visitors can stay at the likes of the Lotus Boutique Hotel, just 1.3km from Manger Square. There were also plenty of beds free at the House of Peace hostel. Paradoxically, we couldn’t find any actual stables offering accommodation in the region, although the King David Stables offer horseback trail rides and riding lessons.
GOLD, FRANKINCENSE AND MYRRH
Looking for that special gift for that hard to please messiah in your life? If you’d like to replicate the first Christmas gifts ever, you can. Traders at the time of writing were offering gold at about US$2654 (NZ$4544) an ounce. It would have been a much more economical gift a year earlier, when it was trading 33% lower.