In The Art of Living in Season, you will meet santons (little manger clay figurines). You will also read about noëls (carols) and pastorales (Christmas plays). The noëls came first, the pastorales were a later spin off, and the santons, partly inspired by carols and plays, brought both to miniature life. These three traditions influenced one another in various ways, making the chronology somewhat complicated. One might say that the stories of the santons have gone through their own diverse seasons, and sometimes that story is blurry – as is often the case in real life. As the French say, "c'est compliqué"... I am only an amateur historian, but I will try to describe the basics.