Johnny Handle used to do this around the North East folk clubs in the 60s along with the 'Parable of Moses'. The nativity story is based on fact. There is a village just west of Newcastle called Newburn (pronounced Newborn in Geordie) where it is reputed to have taken place. Mary and Joseph lived near Doncaster at the time and they decided to travel up for the Newcastle v Doncaster Rovers match. The buses and trains were crowded so they had to go on an old donkey cart way up the A1. When they passed Leeds and Bradford which was called Sodom and Gomorrah in those days the wheel broke on the cart so they had to go the rest of the way on the donkey's back. There is more of their escapades but to cut a long story short they ended up in a stable in Newborn where the bairn was born. The angel appeared to the shepherds at Throckley, near Newborn and when asked where the location was he put his hand in his nightshirt and pulled out a Newcastle Brown Ale bottle and threw it towards Newborn saying "See that Blue Star? Follow it". Proof of this being the true location of the Nativity can be found in the song "Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Glory to the Newborn King" This is only part of the story I used to tell the full story when I was drunk but I have been TT for the last 35 years. Bill Bill
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