Not the star of Bethlehem, but Comet 46P/Wirtanen is predicted to be bright enough to be seen with the naked eye during the holiday season

Nature is providing some free family time entertainment.  

See Travel + Leisure, A 'Christmas Comet' Will Light Up the Sky This Weekend — and It Won't Shine This Bright Again for 20 Years for the full story on Comet 46P/Wirtanen which is described as already the brightest comet in the night sky and is predicted to be bright enough to be seen with the naked eye during the holiday season. 

Comets rarely get bright enough to see without telescopes, so this is a rare chance to cross comets off your celestial bucket list.

When to see the Christmas Comet -

Although it's been visible to those with telescopes and powerful binoculars for a few weeks, 46P/Wirtanen will be both at its brightest, and most easily found, on and around Dec. 16, 2018. That's because on that date 46P/Wirtanen reaches what astronomers call perihelion, when it’s nearest to the sun, so it has the maximum amount of sunlight reflecting from it. It may reach a visual magnitude +4 or maybe even +3, which means that it will be easily visible to the naked eye.

How to find it. I use Star Walk 2 and SkyView apps to assist in finding objects in the night sky. Look to the constellation of Orion, to the southeast. Follow a line from the lowest to the highest star of the three stars that make up Orion's belt, to a bright red star. Go the same distance again and you'll see the Pleiades star cluster (also called the Seven Sisters), which is so bright you will probably have already noticed it as a bright smudge in the corner of your eye. 46P/Wirtanen will be just below the Pleiades, slightly to the left.

NASA Photo of the day - Comet 46P/Wirtanen, Image Credit & Copyright: Alex Cherney (Terrastro, TWAN)