🎉 How It's Celebrated
Each year the Pope travels to Piazza di Spagna in Rome to lay a wreath of white roses at the base of the Column of the Immaculate Conception, attended by the Mayor of Rome and the city's fire brigade, whose ladder traditionally places a floral garland on the statue of Mary atop the column. Across the country, families set up their presepe (nativity scenes) and decorate the Christmas tree on this day, marking the unofficial start of the festive season. Christmas markets — most famously Bolzano's Mercatino di Natale — open their stalls, and Milan lights its grand illuminations along the Via Dante and around the Duomo.
