Pope Benedict XVI is to preside over six Christmas ceremonies in two weeks as the Catholic Church celebrates its most important festivity of the year.
Benedict's schedule, which contains no breaks with tradition, starts on Christmas Eve, Wednesday December 24, when the 81-year-old pontiff will celebrate Midnight Mass in St Peter's Basilica.
The next day at noon he will deliver his Christmas message and impart the blessing 'urbi et orbi' (to the city of Rome and the world) from the central balcony of St Peter's.
The ceremony and message, which is always a central feature of Christmas for the 1.1 billion Catholics around the world, will be broadcast by dozens of television channels.
On December 31, at 18.00, he will preside over Vespers in St Peter's and on January 1, at 10.00, he will preside over a morning mass marking the Vatican's World Day of Peace.
Benedict's message for the day, which has been released ahead if time, is entitled Combating Poverty, Building Peace.
Five days later, on January 6, the pontiff will celebrate an Epiphany mass in the morning and on January 11 will close the Christmas season by baptising newborn babies in the Sistine Chapel.
Throughout the festivities, Romans and tourists traditionally stop by St Peter's at least once to inspect the Nativity Scene and the Christmas tree.
The tradition of having a giant tree and nativity scene in St Peter's Square was started in 1982 by the current pope's predecessor, John Paul II.
Over the last 26 years the honour of donating the tree has mainly gone to snowy regions in Italy and in countries such as Romania and the Czech Republic.
This year the tree is a 33-metre-high Norway spruce from Gutenstein in Lower Austria which has been decorated with around 1,500 lights.
Vatican officials said that once Christmas is over, the 120-year-old spruce will be chopped up and its wood used to make toys for children and garden decorations.
