One way to know you’re in a great museum: You’re rushing to see the latest blockbuster and get waylaid by something amazing that catches your eye. How come you never noticed it before? The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual seasonal blockbuster—New York’s museum version of “The Nutcracker”—is the magnificent Christmas tree decorated with a magical 18th-century Neapolitan crèche and ornaments, on view through Jan. 6. Almost literally in its shadow, easy to miss en route to holiday joy, sits an even more breathtaking exhibition of pages from the Winchester Bible. And they won’t be on view next Christmastime—the show packs up after March 9.

William the Conqueror’s grandson Henry of Blois (1098-1171) probably commissioned the Winchester Bible while he was Bishop of Winchester, one of the world’s great cathedrals.