Posted December 25th, 2012 at 3:42 pm (UTC-4)
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal (2nd R) carries a statuette of baby Jesus during Christmas Midnight Mass at the Church of St. Catherine, which is connected to the Church of Nativity, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. (Reuters)
Swiss guards arrive for Pope Benedict XVI’s traditional Christmas ‘Urbi et Orbi’ blessing from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. (AFP)
Egyptian women cut their hair during a demonstration in Tahrir Square, Cairo, to protest against the Islamist-oriented constitution. (AP)
A spotted seal swims in a partly frozen lake at Dongpaotai Park in Yantai, Shandong province, China. (Reuters)
A Georgian woman sells chichilaki – an ancient traditional Christmas tree made of hazelnut wood, in Tbilisi. Georgians believe a chichilaki resembles the beard of St. Basil, who is widely revered in the Orthodox Christian ex-Soviet nation. (AP)
A man dressed in a Santa Claus costume walks past sand sculptures of Santa Clauses created by the artist Sudarshan Pattnaik and his students as part of Christmas celebrations on a beach in Puri, located in the eastern Indian state of Odisha. (Reuters)
A woman feeds pigeons in a snow-covered park in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Reuters)
British travelers celebrate Christmas Day despite wet and cold weather at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. (AP)
A police officer stands guard while Pakistani Christians arrive to attend mass on Christmas day in Lahore, Pakistan. (Reuters)
Workers shape a snow sculpture prior to the annual Vasaloppet China Ski Festival at Jingyuetan Park in Changchun, Jilin province, China. (Reuters)
People light candles during a Christmas Eve mass in Alexander Nevski Cathedral in Sofia, Bulgaria. (Reuters)
Graves adorned with Christmas wreaths are seen in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, USA. (AFP)
Fireworks light up the sky above a 326-meter tall Christmas tree decoration, illuminating the TV tower in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Christmas Day. (AP)
A woman and her daughter go for a walk as temperatures reached 12 degrees Celcius in Petersdorf, Germany. (AFP)