Three wise men

Well there would be Four only I could not get a flight

 

You could have just gone in your sumbarine.

 

Just been to a longer telling of the same story.

The plot thickens.

A character who came from the sky impregnated a virgin then made her travel on a donkey, in bleak midwinter, all the way to a far away town.

The three wise men I think were kings. I'm not sure. They didn't explain that very well. But it seems like they were some kind of covert operatives, because they'd been given instructions what to do and when, and somebody was giving them intell in order to keep them alive and the location of the baby Jesus secret.

I think I understand the role of the shepherds now I've heard the longer telling. I think they too were covert operatives. I think they'd been given an approximate location to wait at for further instructions, because shortly after the birth of the christ child, another operative appeared to give them precise details of the next part of their mission, which I think was to secure, protect and conceal the christ child and his mother.

The telling ended with some songs about some kind of two way conversation between earth and heaven, with heaven ringing down and earth replying, from what I could gather, to confirm that the operation had been successful.

Meanwhile our three wise men, having completed their part of the operation, had to go into hiding, after being told by unknown agents that a jealous king had set up an ambush on what would have been their route home.