Energy-efficient lights to adorn Vatican Christmas tree

The Vatican's Christmas tree will be adorned with energy-saving lights, the governing office of Vatican City said.

Vatican workers will decorate the tree and use lighting supplied by the German multinational, OSRAM, the governing office said in a press release Nov. 15.

The "next generation" lights are meant to have a reduced impact on the environment and use less energy, the office said.

The 85-foot-tall spruce tree will come from the high plateaus of the Veneto region in northeast Italy and another 20 smaller trees will be donated by communities in the region's province of Vicenza.

About 40 trees will be replanted in an area in the northeast that had been seriously damaged by severe hurricane-like winds and torrential rains in late 2018.

The large Nativity scene in St. Peter's Square will be made entirely out of wood and replicate the traditional northern Trentino-style buildings with their wood shingle roofs.

At least 20 larger-than-life-size painted wooden figures representing the Holy Family, the Magi, shepherds and animals will animate the scene, which will also include broken tree trunks salvaged from the 2018 storms.

A smaller Nativity scene, provided by the northern province of Treviso, will be set up in the Vatican's Paul VI audience hall. It will imitate an old style, with Gothic arches, characteristic of barns and stables in the Lessinia mountain range.

A delegation of representatives from the region will meet with the pope Dec. 5, before the tree-lighting ceremony later that afternoon.

The tree and Nativity scene will remain in St. Peter's Square until the feast of the Lord's Baptism Jan. 12, the governing office said.