PITTSBURGH — Traditional displays, like the theme decorated trees and Italian Nativity, plus new programs fill the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History for the holidays. Following is a list of events for this holiday season. All activities are included in the price of admission, unless otherwise indicated.

Carnegie Museum of Art

• "Holiday Tree Display: Pittsburgh 250," through Jan. 8, in the Hall of Architecture.

Featured are five fresh trees with handmade ornaments, each incorporating iconic Pittsburgh sights, including bridges, mills, steel and rivers, among other things. One of the five trees will carry a birthday party theme to celebrate Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary. Visitors to the museum are invited to create ornaments to decorate special trees at the museum's entrance.

• "Neapolitan Presepio," through Jan. 7, in the Hall of Architecture. A visit to Carnegie Museum of Art's Neapolitan Presepio has been a Pittsburgh holiday tradition since 1957. Handcrafted by artisans between 1700 and 1830, the presepio teems with lifelike figures and colorful details that recreate the nativity within a vibrant panorama of 18th-century Italian village life.

More than 100 superbly modeled human and angelic figures, along with animals, accessories, and architectural elements, cover a 250-square-foot area. Guided tours of the "Neapolitan Presepio" are available from noon to 12:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays through Jan. 7, starting from in front of the museum store.

• "Lunch & Learn: Religious Traditions in Italian Art," 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 18. Cost is $36 for members and $45 for nonmembers; call 412-622-3288 to register.

• ARTventures: Drop-in Family Activities will feature a program called "Happy Birthday, Pittsburgh!" from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays continuing through Dec. 28. Participants celebrate Pittsburgh's 250th birthday, looking around the galleries, for pictures of the city's past and creating new images for today to hang on Pittsburgh-themed trees in the Courtyard Entry.

• Holiday concerts at 1 p.m. on select Saturdays and Sundays in December in the Hall of Architecture. The schedule is: Joy Ike, Saturday; Pittsburgh Woodwind Quartet, Sunday; Elwood City Chorale, Dec. 20; and The Steve Jackson Band, Dec. 21.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History

• Winter in the Discovery Room, open 1 to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays, and 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays. Visitors experience the wonder of winter by learning about holiday greenery, touching a caribou's winter white fur, investigating animals on the Discovery Room tree and listening to the calls of wild birds.

• "Who Ate the Cookie?" noon to 4 p.m. through Dec. 27 by the Fisher Scientific Biotechnology Laboratory. Hands-on experiments featuring state-of-the-art technology will teach attendees about DNA extraction. The 30-minute programs begin on the half hour in the Green Classroom on the ground floor of the museum. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

The art and natural history museums will observe the following changes in hours for this holiday season: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 29 and closed Dec. 25 and Jan. 1.

Regular hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, with additional hours until 8 p.m. Thursdays, and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. Closed major holidays.

Admission, which includes the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, is $15 for adults, $12 for senior citizens, and $11 for students and children age 3 and older, and free for members and children younger than 3.

The museums are at 4400 Forbes Avenue in Oakland.

Call 412-622-3131 or visit the Web site, www.carnegiemuseums.org.

Neapolitan Presepio, the Italian Nativity displayed in the Hall of Architecture at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, has attracted visitors since 1957. The scene along with five theme-decorated trees will be exhibited through early January.