We celebrate the Annunciation on 25th March and we celebrate the Nativity nine months later on 25th December. This image, the only one of the Nativity in the Cathedral, is a detail from the Reredos of the Lady Chapel Altar. That said the Crib figures always make an annual appearance in December! The Christmas mystery and Mary's role in it is truly significant for us; of all women she is the most blest in being chosen to give human flesh to Son of God. This mystery is wonderfuly expressd in the first antiphon at Vespers on January 1st, the Feast of Mary, Mother of God:
"O marvelous exchange! Man's Creator has become man, born of the Virgin. We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled Himself to share our humanity."
