Does Obama's White House feature a Christmas Nativity Scene?

NCRegister reporter Tim Drake sets the record straight. 

Apparently the holy family very nearly got shut out of the White Inn:

The rumor is that the White House didn’t put up a crèche this year. That’s not true.

What is true is the fact that the president and first lady considered not putting one up. That appears in a New York Times profile of Desirée Rogers, the White House social secretary.

According to the story:

“When former social secretaries gave a luncheon to welcome Ms. Rogers earlier this year, one participant said, she surprised them by suggesting the Obamas were planning a ‘non-religious Christmas’ — hardly a surprising idea for an administration making a special effort to reach out to other faiths.

“The lunch conversation inevitably turned to whether the White House would display its crèche, customarily placed in a prominent spot in the East Room. Ms. Rogers, this participant said, replied that the Obamas did not intend to put the manger scene on display — a remark that drew an audible gasp from the tight-knit social secretary sisterhood. (A White House official confirmed that there had been internal discussions about making Christmas more inclusive and whether to display the crèche.)”

In the end, tradition won out. A crèche is in its usual spot in the East Room.

But it was a close call. Just like 2,000 or so years ago.