Sr Agnese Zammit will never forget her first Christmas as a cloister nun.

“There were no decorations, it was so monotonous,” she recalled of her first Christmas at St Ursola’s monastery in Valletta.

“I was only 18, and I wanted to decorate the place, but I wasn’t allowed.”

But, not unlike Sr Maria in the Sound of Music, she managed to get her way after a priest who had just celebrated Mass casually mentioned that he had to leave since he had to decorate the refectory of the convent he lived at.

“That’s when I told him to explain to the others that decorating for Christmas is not a sin for us cloister nuns,” she told timesofmalta.com, with her bubbly character coming through her laugh.

He duly put in a word and his influence won the day.

Sr Agnese promptly gathered the young nuns and started creating a joyous atmosphere using the decorations people gave them.

Sr Christine Borg said it did not take much to get the other sisters into the spirit of decorating. “Decorations get you into the spirit of Christmas, they show that the Lord’s birth is near”.

Sr Agnese and Sr Christine were also the masterminds behind the crib that is currently being exhibited at the Auberge de Castille. The crib, which took 14 years to complete, is made of recycled items.

Both nuns also spoke on how they had got used to being inside a monastery while the people outside celebrated the night away at Christmas.

“We celebrate Christmas spiritually, and God fills you with all the joy you need throughout this season,” they say. (See video)