Christmas in Italy and the Vatican

How Italians celebrate Christmas

The Italian season opens on 8 December, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and a national holiday, when most families put up the tree and the presepe. In Rome the Pope marks the day by praying at the statue of the Virgin Mary near the Spanish Steps. Through December, towns light their streets, Christmas markets open, and in the south zampognari, shepherd bagpipers from Abruzzo and Molise in sheepskin and cloaks, play carols in the piazzas during the novena, the nine days before Christmas.

Christmas Eve, la Vigilia, is traditionally a day of abstinence from meat, so the evening cenone (big dinner) centres on fish and seafood: baccalà, eel, clams and fried fish, with variations in every region. Many families then go to Messa di Mezzanotte (midnight Mass), and the Infant Jesus is placed in the manger of the family presepe. Christmas Day brings the main feast, the pranzo di Natale, a long lunch that in the north may begin with tortellini or capon broth and in the south with baked pasta, followed by roasts and the Christmas cakes panettone and pandoro. Afternoons are for card games and tombola, a Neapolitan-born bingo.

26 December, Santo Stefano, is another holiday for visiting relatives and eating leftovers. New Year's Eve, Capodanno, brings lentils and cotechino for luck and fireworks at midnight, and the season closes on 6 January with the Epiphany and La Befana. As the Italian saying goes, "L'Epifania tutte le feste porta via": the Epiphany carries all the holidays away.

Christmas at the Vatican

Vatican City, an independent state inside Rome since the Lateran Treaty of 1929, is the spiritual centre of Christmas for the world's Catholics. Its Christmas combines the Pope's liturgies in St Peter's Basilica with a giant tree and nativity scene in St Peter's Square, and draws pilgrims from every continent.

Papal Christmas Masses and the Urbi et Orbi blessing

The Pope celebrates Christmas Eve Mass ("Mass during the Night") in St Peter's Basilica on 24 December, with thousands more following on giant screens in the square. At its end the Pope carries a statue of the Infant Jesus to the nativity scene inside the basilica. At noon on 25 December, he appears on the central loggia (balcony) of the basilica to deliver the Christmas message and the Urbi et Orbi blessing, "to the city and to the world", given only at Christmas and Easter and broadcast worldwide.

At his first Christmas as Pope in 2025, Pope Leo XIV moved the Christmas Eve Mass back to its traditional 10 pm start, after earlier start times under his predecessors, and revived a Christmas Day morning Mass in the basilica at 10 am, which no pope had celebrated since 1994, before giving the Urbi et Orbi at noon. The papal Christmas season continues with Vespers and the Te Deum of thanksgiving on the evening of 31 December, Mass on 1 January (the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, and World Day of Peace) and Mass on the Epiphany, 6 January. The 2026 papal schedule is published by the Office of Papal Liturgical Celebrations closer to Christmas.

The Christmas tree and nativity scene in St Peter's Square

Since 1982, when Pope John Paul II introduced the custom, a large Christmas tree and a life-size nativity scene have stood beside the ancient Egyptian obelisk in Bernini's St Peter's Square. Each year a different region, usually Italian but sometimes from abroad, donates them, and the tree is lit and the presepe unveiled at a public ceremony in early December. Both remain until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord in January, when they are dismantled.

For Christmas 2026, the Vatican has announced that the tree will be a silver fir of about 25 metres from the Cugno dell'Acero forest in Terranova di Pollino (province of Potenza), within the Pollino National Park. The nativity scene in the square will be created by the Archdiocese of Chieti-Vasto with the Amici del Presepe association of Atessa, the Libera Confraternita degli Artisti and the education centre of Vasto prison. In 2025 the tree, a spruce of about 27 metres, came from Lagundo and Ultimo in South Tyrol, and the presepe from the Diocese of Nocera Inferiore-Sarno near Salerno.

The nativity in the Paul VI Audience Hall

A second nativity scene is set up inside the Paul VI Audience Hall, where the Pope holds general audiences in winter. For 2026 it is being created by the Fondazione Carnevale di Viareggio in Tuscany, the foundation behind the famous Viareggio Carnival floats, and sets the Nativity in a maritime scene of local fishing life.

How to attend Christmas at the Vatican

Tickets for the papal Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Masses in St Peter's Basilica are free and are requested in advance from the Prefecture of the Papal Household; they are much in demand and should never be bought from resellers. No ticket is needed to stand in St Peter's Square for the Urbi et Orbi blessing at noon on 25 December, but crowds gather early and pass through security checks. The tree and nativity scene can be visited freely throughout the season.

The presepe: Italy's nativity scene tradition

Italy is the home of the Christmas nativity scene. In 1223 St Francis of Assisi staged the first living nativity in a cave at Greccio, in Lazio, with a manger, an ox and a donkey, and the custom spread across the Catholic world. Today almost every Italian home, church and town square has a presepe, from simple figures under the tree to vast landscapes with whole villages of shepherds, bakers, fishmongers and innkeepers.

Naples is the capital of the art: its street of nativity workshops, Via San Gregorio Armeno, sells handmade figures all year round, including tongue-in-cheek figurines of footballers and politicians beside the traditional cast. Living nativities (presepi viventi) are staged across the country, most famously among the cave dwellings of the Sassi di Matera in Basilicata and in the Grotta Mangiapane at Custonaci in Sicily, while Greccio still re-enacts St Francis's first nativity.

Christmas in Italy, region by region

Northern Italy

In the German-speaking province of South Tyrol, the Christmas markets of Bolzano, Merano and Bressanone are among the best known in Italy, with mulled wine, wooden crafts and Alpine food; Trento has a similar market. Milan opens its season on 7 December, the feast of its patron Sant'Ambrogio, with the traditional Oh Bej! Oh Bej! market, and is the home of panettone; Verona gave the world pandoro. In parts of Lombardy and Veneto, including Bergamo, Brescia and Verona, Santa Lucia brings gifts on the night of 12–13 December. In Emilia-Romagna, Christmas lunch starts with tortellini in brodo, and in Piedmont with agnolotti.

Rome and central Italy

Rome combines the Vatican's ceremonies with its own traditions: the Pope's prayer at the Spanish Steps on 8 December, the Christmas and Befana market in Piazza Navona, and presepi in churches across the city. In Umbria, the city of Gubbio lights an enormous Christmas tree outlined in lights on the slopes of Monte Ingino, recognised by Guinness World Records in 1991 as the world's largest. Tuscany keeps the old custom of the ceppo, the Yule log, and bakes panforte and ricciarelli in Siena.

Naples and southern Italy

The south has the most intense Christmas traditions. In Naples, Christmas Eve means capitone (fried eel), baccalà and seafood pasta, followed by struffoli, honey-coated fried dough balls, and tombola at the table. In Abruzzo and Molise, zampognari bagpipers still play in December. Puglia bakes cartellate, rosettes of fried dough soaked in vincotto, and Basilicata's Matera stages its living nativity among the Sassi. Calabria and Puglia keep the custom of the Christmas Eve fish supper with many small dishes.

Sicily and Sardinia

In Sicily, the novena before Christmas is marked by processions and music, and families bake buccellato, a ring pastry filled with figs, nuts and chocolate. The living nativity at Custonaci, near Trapani, is staged in a vast cave. In Sardinia, Christmas Eve is a time for family gatherings around the fire and midnight Mass, with local sweets made from almonds and honey.

Italian Christmas food

Italian Christmas food changes with each day of the holiday and each region. Note that the "Feast of the Seven Fishes" is an Italian-American name: in Italy the Christmas Eve fish supper is simply la cena della Vigilia, and the number of dishes varies by family and region.

La Befana and the Epiphany

Italy's own gift-bringer is La Befana, an old woman on a broomstick who arrives on the night of 5 January, the eve of the Epiphany. Legend says the Three Kings asked her to join them on their journey to Bethlehem; she refused, then changed her mind, and has been searching for the Infant Jesus ever since, leaving gifts in every house she visits. Stockings hung by the fireplace are filled with sweets for the good and lumps of coal, today usually sugar "coal", for the naughty. The town of Urbania in the Marche, which calls itself the home of La Befana, holds a large festival every January, and Rome's Piazza Navona market is filled with Befana figures. On 6 January the Pope celebrates the Epiphany Mass in St Peter's Basilica, and the Christmas season draws to a close.

Italian Christmas season dates 2026

Italian Christmas music has its own classics too: the best-loved carol, "Tu scendi dalle stelle", was written in the 18th century by St Alphonsus Liguori, a Neapolitan bishop.

Christmas in Italy: frequently asked questions

Christmas in nearby countries