Here’s a holiday tradition we should abandon: Well, actually-ing Nativity scenes in Christmas art and song.

It’s true that baby Jesus wasn’t surrounded by a petting zoo, that Mary didn’t give birth in a cave, that the Bible doesn’t say there were three wise men, and that those wise men were not literally kings. But this kind of “Nativity knocking” often stems from a basic misunderstanding of artistic depictions of the Christmas story.

The intent is good: to ...

Every Christmas, Lou Gallo dresses up as Santa Claus in Busan, South Korea.

At the school for young North Korean defectors, Gallo and his wife, Lisa, bring gifts, teach children to decorate gingerbread houses, and talk about the real meaning of Christmas. One year, the Gallos organized a pageant and guided the students through the story of the Nativity, complete with angels, shepherds, wise men, barn animals, a pregnant virgin, and a God who became a baby.

Most people who have fled North Korea, however, ...