The Bible gets four shots to tell Jesus’ birth — well, four gospel writers plus Paul and the other epistle writers, so at least four.
But the manger only appears in Luke. For many current-day Christians,
the Christmas story would be incomplete without the manger scene:
little baby Jesus wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger. But
does this, the crowning scene of many a church Christmas Pageant, really
matter?

Well, yes and no. Does the manger matter to Matthew, Mark, or John?
No, not one bit. Does the manger matter to Paul? Nope. In fact, Paul
doesn’t even seem to know about the whole virgin birth story, let alone
the manger — at least he never mentions it. And even for Luke, is the
manger an irreplaceable aspect of the birth story that, without the
manger, Jesus’ birth would lose all its meaning? I think not. But it
matters; the manger matters to Luke at least.

Luke is the gospel in which stories of the poor and the outcast and
women get a special airing. Luke seems to be all about those on the
margins, and Luke tells the story of Jesus with that hue. So yeah, the
manger matters, for it puts the scandal of Jesus, the craziness of the
gospel, in a tidy (or smelly?) message.