Loretta Hines Howard

Loretta Hines Howard (1904 — April 2, 1982) was an American performer and collector. Howard was a miser of Neapolitan crèche figures from the 18th-century. In 1957, Howard began what would become a forty-year tradition of decorating the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Christmas tree similar to items from her créche collection, integrating the Roman Catholic practice of creating nativity scenes past the European protestant tradition of tree decoration. In the in advance 1960s, she donated her amassing to the museum.

Howard's operate as a painter is included in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her papers, 1926–1941, are held by the Smithsonian.

Her funeral was held at St. Ignatius Loyola Roman Catholic Church, Manhattan past burial in Valley, Wyoming.