And welcome to OnQ.

I'm Michael Bartley.

Just three more day till Christmas.

And as part of our celebratio of the holidays, we're taking you insid the Carnegie Museum of Art in Oakland.

That's where 12f Christmas trees are all aglow.

It's also where you'll fin a nativity scene.

More than 300 years old.

It's a Pittsburgh tradition.

Christmas at the Carnegie!

[Music Plays] Today we're standing in the Hall of Architectur in front of the Neapolita Presepio, which has been her at the museum as a holiday traditio and favorite since 1957.

My name is Rachel Delphia.

I'm the assistant curator of decorative arts her at Carnegie Museum of Art.

And the word presepi comes from Latin and Italian word for manger or crib.

The Presepio is a particula type of nativity scene or creche that comes out of a traditio in Naples.

And this is a traditio that thrived, especially in the 18th century, from the 1730 up until about 1800.

It's a celebratio not only of the birth of Christ, which you can see in on half of the display with the traditional Jesu and Mary and Joseph and angels looking on, but it also situate the Nativity within everyday life in Naples.

So on the other side of the scene, we have a bustling marketplace.

We have vendor from near and far.

We have shepherd with their sheep, but we also have farmer who've come into town bringing their livestock.

And we have a cheese vendo in the museums.

We have just over 10 human and angelic figures.

So we have people and angels, and then we also hav several dozen animals.

We have a rather elaborate stag underneath that supports the whole scene.

And then we have all th buildings which we get in place and a number of the buildings the largest structures, the Roman ruin and most of the building over in the town actually cam with the from Italy.

There are a lot of rock and roads and odds and ends, and we conceal all the seams and put it togethe with little bits of moss.

Once the set is already we get out all the figures.

And that's reall when the fun begins, because you get to jus put everybody in their place.

And we do change it a little bi every year.

If you look closel at the figures, you'll see that they're quite animated they're very lively.

They have very engagin facial expressions.

They make gesture with their hands.

And so for me, par of the challenge and part of the fu is putting people into groups.

Who's talking to whom this year, who's bargainin over a piece of cheese and who's staring at the angel up in the sky in the distance.

[Music Plays] The figure are really multimedia works of art, their heads and in fact, their little busts, their shoulders and whatno are made out of terracotta.

And they have glass eye and then they're cold painted.

So it's not a glaze.

They're painted ove top of the, of the terracotta.

And those were mad by a lot of the artisans who were working in the royal porcelai factory in Naples.

And then their bodie are actually made of, of toe or flax.

So they're kind of wir armatures that are then wrapped with rope, essentially and that's so that you can move the figures around.

So we have to be carefu with them now because they're almost 300 years old.

But originall when they were brand new, it was quite eas to bend someone's legs or arms to change their gestur or their position, and then their hands and their feet are made of woo and those are painted as well.

So you get very lifelike looking figure.

[Music Plays] And many of them have wonderful props that carry baskets of goodies that they'v just bought in the market.

Or like our mushroo vendor has a basket that's balanced on its hea and full of mushrooms within the Percipio.

We can't los sight of the Holy Family becaus that is the center of it all.

So we have Mary, who's traditionally dresse in white or pale pink with a blue veil and robe.

And then we have, of course, Baby Jesus, Fathe Joseph, looking on lovingly, and they're both staring dow at the infant child who's laid between them.

They're situate within a Roman ruin.

And this i particularly significant because it represent the passing of one order and the comin of a new religious age.

Part of the traditiona story of the Nativity are the three Magi and ours are all on horses.

They look to have hel from different lands.

You can se they're of different races, and they have beautiful horse and saddles and gorgeous robes, and they're carryin their gifts to the baby.

What's different about this year?

We've added the Angel of the Annunciation, speaking to the shepherds.

[Music Plays] So she is, instead of swirlin around the Roman ruin and the Holy Family, we have an angel that's in the middl of the scene, and she's actually carrying a banner that says Gloria in excelsis, and the shepherd are staring up at her and all.

So I think that's something that will be a lot of fu for visitors to look for, and is relatively ne to our installation.

[Music Plays] I'm Barbara Granada.

I'm a member of the Women' Committee, and I'm chairin the Christmas trees this year.

The Christmas trees is just one of the many way that the Women's Committee celebrates the museu and the community.

It's a wonderful holida tradition.

It goes back to the beginnin of the Women's Committee.

And like the Persepio, it's a Pittsburg treasure!

There's nothing like i anywhere in the world.

All the ornament on each of the trees are handmade by volunteers from the Women's Committe every year from scratch.

And we have five beautiful Colorado spruce i the Hall of Architecture here.

Each year the Women's Committe selects a theme.

And this yea our theme is Useful Beauty Celebrating the Decorative Arts.

And this is in hono of the reopening of the Eliza mellon Bruc Galleries of Decorative Arts.

We have one that is the histor of chair design.

Hundreds of chair through the design, up through the modern chairs.

We also have the art of Tea.

The Tea service.

Tea in the 17th centur was sort of the cocktail party of the enlightenment and there's a lot of great tea paraphernalia.

The porcelain, the tea cakes.

We have another tre that is inspired by rococo decorative interior design.

When the French court move back to Paris from Versailles, they couldn't build so they redecorated inside.

It's a great perio for decorative arts.

We also have another that with paper mache ornament and it's really fabulous.

And we also in partnershi with the Carnegie libraries.

We have a tre that will be based on manuscript in the art of bookbinding.

The trees are a holida tradition that we really hope that people make their ow tradition.

It's a wonderful way to com and celebrate the Museum of Art, and to really connect esthetically with the beauty an the joy of the holidays here.

[Music Plays] The Carnegie Museum of Art of Christmas tree traditio dating back to the 1960s.

Once the holiday season is over the trees will be taken down i the ornaments given away.