Christmas Eve Mass at the Vatican

I have not been there for Xmas, but did go at Easter time. It is tricky to figure out the details from the Vatican websites. I know that you do need tickets for Xmas Eve, although they are free. You must request in advance, and then pick them up in Rome. I imagine the lines would be huge. The vigil is very long, so I would book a taxi ahead of time to pick you up afterwards.
Try contacting the Santa Susanna church (they have a great website.) It is the American parish in Rome and they are very helpful for visitors who want to attend special events.

Ashley, It will not be possible to get tickets inside; these are issued in advance. If there is extra room, they might let you in unticketed, but you shouldn't have to do that since it is very easy to request tickets: http://www.pnac.org/pilgrim-information/bishops-office-for-us-visitors-to-the-vatican/ You don't have to request them more than 4 weeks in advance. If you send them an email now you will probably not get an answer, since they are not anywhere near handling December requests yet. Standing in the square and watching via jumbotron will be a good or a bad experience depending upon factors like weather (it could be pretty chilly, or even raining), comfort (I don't know if they have chairs set up that day or not -- you could be standing), etc. Just request a ticket and go inside. The Sisters in the ticket of The metro will be closed when you leave Mass and although there is the night bus service, they do not come by as frequently as the daytime buses and do not always have as good coverage. The best thing to do would be to take a cab, though you will be paying a higher fare because it is night. The Taxi Stand is in the square outside of St. Peter's Square. Since there will be lots of people taking cabs, you might have to wait. As for the curfew, the best people to answer that question are the Fraterna Domus folks. In the next message is something in Italian you could send them (an English translation follows), and I am sure that whatever response you get you could figure out via Google Translate. Give them time to respond (four or five days), but thereafter be contact them again, etc., maybe fax the question to them if they don't respond to your email. You'll get a response eventually. They don't believe in 24 hour responses here; "customer service" is still a foreign concept in many respects.

Here is something you could send them in Italian, English translation follows: Buongiorno,
alloggierò presso il Vostro convento durante il periodo natalizio. Propongo andare alla Messa di Mezzanotte in Vaticano, e vorrei sapere se ci sarà la possibilità di tornare al convento dopo il coprifuoco quella notte, date le circonstanze particolari. In attesa di un Vostro gentile riscontro, Vi porgo cordiali saluti. YOUR NAME ENGLISH Good day, I will stay at your convent at Christmastime. I plan to go to Midnight Mass in the Vatican, and would like to know if there will be the possibility of returning to the convent after the curfew that night, given the particular circumstances. (Standard Baroque closing line:) Awaiting your kind reply, I greet you cordially. *** I'm pretty sure the "midnight" Mass actually starts around 10 now, but you will still not realistically get back until after midnight. Take care and good luck!

Thank you for your letter in Italian! I got a reply within a few hours. They said they do give out a key on the 24 and the 31 for people attending mass. I will talk to my pastor about tickets, and see what he says. If not, I will go through the web site you provided. This forum is such a blessing for me. Thank you all.

Thank you for such a helpful response. If I do not hear anything soon in English, I will send your message. I appreciate this very much! I will post back what happens.

Ashley Talk to the pastor of your parish and see if he can get your (Bishop/Archbishop/Cardinal's) office to request tickets for you. We did that with our tickets to the Paypal audience last week and had fantastic seats,

Ashley, Probably, your pastor would just go through the Sisters to get the tickets. So you could cut out the middleman and just email them yourself through that web page. That office is the ordinary way for Americans to get tickets to papal events. I'm glad everything worked out with getting a response back from them and their key solution! Enjoy your trip.