This year is the 800^th anniversary of when  St. Francis went to the little town of Greccio.  He requested that the local nobleman prepare a cave, straw, an ox and an ass[u1] .  Francis wanted to see with his own eyes how the cave of Bethlehem would have been on Christmas night.  It is said that at the Consecration of the Mass, Francis was holding an Infant in his arms.
"Francis celebrated with unutterable enthusiasm the Birth of the Child Jesus more than all the other feasts, calling it the feast of feasts on which God becoming a baby, sucked the milk of a woman. with thoughts of yearning, he caressed the infant limbs of the image, and the pity he had for the child dissolved his heart, causing him to stammer tender words after the manner of infants. And this name was for him as sweet as the honeycomb in his mouth“ (Celano, Life II, 199)