The Coolest Nativity Scene Around

The three wise men who visited the baby Jesus at a tiny New York City Nativity scene four decades ago have been joined over the years by hundreds of shepherds, peasants and other figures.

Now the Brooklyn Nativity scene is so big it has its own section in the St. Athanasius Catholic Church. It measures 20 feet wide by 16 feet deep.

Italian immigrant Antonio Vigilante says when he started the Nativity scene in the Bensonhurst church it was simple -- a little house and about a dozen statues. He says this Christmas season it boasts 30 houses, more than 300 figures and even a babbling brook.

But the original manger scene the Avellino native created hasn't changed in the last 40 years. It remains at the center of the sprawling display.

Vigilante says without the Nativity scene it isn't Christmas.