Vatican City Government Press Release – Christmas 2025

From Val d’Ultimo, Bolzano province comes the great Norway spruce standing 25 meters in height and weighing 8,000 kilograms. This imposing tree is destined for St. Peter’s Square for Christmas of 2025; it was cut at five o’clock on the 24th of November and has since been transported to Rome.A great gift bestowed by the municipalities Lagundo and Val d’Ultimo, representing a zone of awkward, extreme beauty, ancient farmsteads—lakes, streams, forests—mountains towering high above broad meadows.Together with the spruce picked for the Square an additional 40 smaller trees will be brought to Vatican These adorned trees will find their place in the offices and buildings of Holy See.During the selection of the tree, the forestry service applies a method based on sustainability in identifying older trees that within the general cycle of renewal require selective harvesting. "The cutting of the tree does not mean any offense; it comes from careful management of the forest, where as a matter of responsibility, one also has to encourage its good condition and growth. Besides, in Alto Adige, reforestation is more than just a project; it is already an activity and part of sustainable forest management wherein every tree that falls has new ones planted so that strong and sturdy forests are maintained for all generations to come."The tree shall be unveiled until the end of Christmas Time. Then, Austrian company Wilder Naturprodukte will distill essential oils from its green branches while the leftover wood is donated to a charity organization for sustainable reuse.