CNS PHOTO | PAUL HARING A worker on a lift decorates the Christmas tree at the Vatican Dec. 6.

If Germans are known for being punctual, it turns out even their trees show up early.

This year's Christmas tree from Bavaria's Bohemian Forest was scheduled to arrive on the feast of St. Nicholas, Dec. 6.

Instead, cameramen and photographers had to scramble Dec. 5, when images starting showing up on the Vatican's 24-hour live video feed of a giant crane hoisting a 26-metre-tall evergreen in St. Peter's Square.

"We got here early because the weather was good, the Alps were clear (of snow on the roads) and there was no traffic," Alois Frank, the trucking company manager, told Catholic News Service.

They had left earlier than planned to beat bad weather expected in the North, he said.