Photos: Christmas 2012 around the world
December 24, 2012
People light candles during a Christmas Eve mass in Alexander Nevski Cathedral in Sofia, December 25, 2012. Bulgaria, unlike some other Orthodox countries, celebrates Christmas on December 25. REUTERS/Dobrin Kashavelov
Competitors jump into the sea during the 103rd Barcelona Traditional Christmas Swimming Cup at the Old Harbour of Barcelona on December 25, 2012 in Barcelona, Spain. The Copa Nadal is organized by the Barcelona Swimming Club and involves competitors swimming across some 200 meters of water in the harbor. Launched in 1908 the event has only been suspended three times when the Spanish Civil War interrupted proceedings between 1936 and 1938. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)
People take part in an annual Christmas bath in the Warta river, with the outdoor temperature reaching 10 degrees below zero near Lodz, Poland on December 23, 2012. REUTERS/Tomasz Stanczak/Agencja Gazeta
A window cleaner dressed as Santa Claus works at a shopping mall in Tokyo on Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
A man dressed in a Santa Claus costume chats on his cell phone as he works at a dog boutique where customers' dogs wearing Christmas costumes walk around in Lima, Peru, on Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012. The pet boutique hired him for the Christmas holidays. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)
Residents lift up a Santa Claus figurine which they decorated in an alley as part of Christmas celebrations in Karachi on December 24, 2012. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro
A Pakistani vendor sells balloons in a Christian neighborhood for the Christmas holidays in Islamabad, Pakistan on Monday, Dec. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Nathalie Bardou)
Alexander, 9, dressed as Santa Claus, walks beside his mother in Antigua, about 26 from Guatemala City on December 23, 2012. REUTERS/William Gularte
Members of a local Smiling Yoga club wearing Santa Claus costumes perform at a public park in Hanoi on December 23, 2012. Churches, shops, restaurants and shopping mails are decorated in the Southeast Asian nation with some six million catholics preparing to celebrate Christmas. HOANG DINH NAM/AFP/Getty Images
Mike 'Loco' Hoffman, aka Santa Claus, passes out free gifts from the back of a truck to Gloria Lullo and her granddaughter Jolee in the Midland Beach neighborhood which was heavily damaged by Superstorm Sandy on December 23, 2012 in the Staten Island borough of New York City. Staten Island was hit hard by Sandy and some homes and businesses remain without power. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Christmas ornaments sit amongst the remains of homes destroyed by fire during Hurricane Sandy in the Breezy Point area of New York's borough of Queens, on December 25, 2012. REUTERS/Keith Bedford
People visit a Christmas market in Frankfurt on December 20, 2012. German consumer morale dropped for the fourth month running to its lowest level in more than a year as shoppers become increasingly wary of the effect the euro zone debt crisis is having on Europe's largest economy. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
Iraqi boys pray for peace in Iraq and Syria during mass a day before Christmas Eve at Chaldean Catholic Church in Amman on December 23, 2012. REUTERS/Ali Jarekji
A Swiss guard stands before Pope Benedict XVI arrives for his "Urbi et Orbi" (To the city and the world) address from a balcony in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City on December 25, 2012. Pope Benedict used his Christmas message to say people should never lose hope for peace, even in conflict-riven Syria and in Nigeria where he spoke of "terrorism" against Christians. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi
Pope Benedict XVI arrives to lead the Christmas night mass in Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on December 24, 2012. REUTERS/Max Rossi
Britain's Queen Elizabeth leaves St. Mary's church after attending the annual Christmas service on the Royal Estate at Sandringham in Norfolk, eastern England December 25, 2012. REUTERS/Toby Melville
Models pose during the Miss Christmas competition in Yangon, Myanmar on December 24, 2012. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun
A child braves the freezing outdoors while waiting for the arrival of Ded Moroz (Grandfather Frost), the Russian Santa Claus, at the entrance to Moscow's Gorky Park, on December 24, 2012. The temperatures in Moscow dropped today to -7F, but due to high humidity and strong cold wind, weather experts said it would feel more like -14F. KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP/Getty Images
A surfer wearing a santa claus hat runs on the beach of Patos, near Vigo, northwestern Spain, on December 23, 2012. MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP/Getty Images
A floating Nativity crib is displayed in the harbor of Saint Jean Cap Ferrat, south eastern France on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012.(AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)
Orthodox Christian priests (R) wait for the arrival of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal at the entrance of the Church of the Nativity, the site revered as the birthplace of Jesus, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on December 24, 2012. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
A boy holds a santa claus balloon as a convey of cars transporting the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal cross through an Israeli checkpoint into the West Bank city of Bethlehem on December 24, 2012. Twal crossed from Jerusalem into Bethlehem on Monday to attend a procession outside the Church of the Nativity, the site revered as the birthplace of Jesus. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Israeli-Arab Issa Kassissieh, dressed in a santa claus costume, rings a bell in front of the walls surrounding Jerusalem's Old City during a Christmas tree distribution by Jerusalem's municipality on December 23, 2012. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
A family transports their Christmas tree on the top of their vintage Volkswagen Beetle in a residential neighborhood of Woodland Hills, California on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2012. JOE KLAMAR/AFP/Getty Images
Indian schoolchildren dressed as Santa Claus ride on a cycle-rickshaw through a street in Amritsar, India on December 24, 2012. Despite Christians forming a little over 2 percent of the billion plus population in India, Christmas is celebrated with much fanfare and zeal throughout the country. NARINDER NANU/AFP/Getty Images
Guatemalan firefighter Hector Chacon, dressed as Santa Claus, rappels down from the Belize bridge to give toys to children living in the area under the bridge, a very poor area of Guatemala City, on December 23, 2012. The Guatemalan firefighters have been giving toys to the children living in the neighborhoods under the Belize bridge dressed as Santa Claus for 15 years. REUTERS/Jorge Dan Lopez
A man dressed as Saint Nicholas and people in traditional Bavarian attire known as "Buttenmandl" and "Krampusse" march in the southern German town of Maria Gern near Berchtesgaden on December 24, 2012. Buttenmandl and Krampusse consist of animal skins and masks attached to large cow-bells used to make loud, frightening noises and are worn by single young men. They follow Saint Nicholas from house to house each year to bring luck to the good and punishment for the idle. REUTERS/Michael Dalder
A vendor stands selling Santa Claus balloons outside a church in downtown Hanoi on December 24, 2012. Churches, shops, restaurants and shopping malls are decorated in the Southeast Asian communist nation where some 6 million catholics are preparing to celebrate Christmas. HOANG DINH NAM/AFP/Getty Images
A villager walks along an alley decorated for Christmas ain the Liuhe village, near the city of Taiyuan, Shanxi province on December 24, 2012. REUTERS/Jason Lee
Iraqis decorate a Christmas tree in the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Arbil on December 24, 2012. SAFIN HAMED/AFP/Getty Images
Children dressed in Santa Claus outfits line up before a Christmas celebration at a kindergarten in Hanoi on December 24, 2012. REUTERS/Kham
Minority Pakistani Christians walk in an alley past Christmas decorations in Islamabad on December 24, 2012. There is a tiny Christian minority in Pakistan, where only three percent of the population of 167 million are estimated to be non-Muslim. FAROOQ NAEEM/AFP/Getty Images
A man sits inside the Church of the Nativity, the site revered as the birthplace of Jesus, ahead of Christmas in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on December 22, 2012. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
A Palestinian women dressed in traditional costume watches a Christmas parade outside the Church of Nativity in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on December 24, 2012. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside
Santa Claus water-skis on the Potomac River near Washington, DC, on December 24, 2012, at the National Harbor in Maryland during th 27th Annual Water Skiing show. This unusual annual event features a water-skiing Santa, flying elves, the Jet-skiing Grinch, and Frosty the Snowman performing on the Potomac River. PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images
People dressed in costumes watch the Spanish Christmas lottery draw known as "El Gordo" or "The Fat One" in Madrid on Saturday Dec. 22, 2012. After another brutal year of economic hardship, Spaniards across the country are hoping for relief when the country's famed Christmas lottery - the world's richest - pays out euro 2.5 billion ($3.3 billion) in tax-free awards on Saturday. The top prize of euro 400,000 ($529,840) is dubbed 'El Gordo' ('The Fat One') and is likely to be won by hundreds if not thousands of players. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)
People brave the freezing temperature ( -6 F) to attend a carol service outside Moscow's Cathedral of the Virgin Mary of Immaculate Conception on December 24, 2012. ANDREY SMIRNOV/AFP/Getty Images
A Senegalese man uses his smart phone to photograph a display of Christmas lights in the shape of a giant tree, in central Dakar, Senegal. As Christmas approaches in mostly Muslim Senegal, vendors ply the streets selling tinsel, artificial trees, and inflatable Santas, and the main boulevards are all aglow in holiday lights. Senegal, a moderate country along Africa's western coast, has long been a place where Christians and Muslims coexist peacefully and share in each other's holidays. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Families celebrate Christmas day watching the symphony of lights and sound attraction at a park in Manila's Makati financial district December 25, 2012. REUTERS/Cheryl Ravelo
Trees are decorated with lights to celebrate the upcoming Christmas and New Year at the Garden of Morning Calm in Gapyeong, South Korea on Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012. Christmas is one of the biggest holidays in South Korea, where over half of the population are Christians. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Laser beams and images are projected on the facade of Madrid's city hall during a lighting show to mark the start of Christmas festivities in Spain on December 23, 2012. REUTERS/Sergio Perez
People skate on an ice rink on the Boston Common in Boston, on Christmas Eve, Monday, Dec. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Visitors gather to view a sand sculpture with around 500 Santa Clause murals ahead of Christmas celebrations at the Golden Sea beach at Puri, 67 kilometers (42 miles) away from the eastern Indian city of Bhubaneswar, India, on Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012. Although Christians comprise only two percent of the population among a Hindu majority, Christmas is still observed as a celebration across the country. (AP Photo/Biswaranjan Rout)
A police officer dressed in a Santa Claus costume with the blue color representing the police, walks in the Macacos slum after arriving in a police helicopter in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. The Pacifying Police Unit, or UPP, organized for Santa to visit the pacified slum to hand out Christmas gifts to young residents. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Freya, the Chancellor's cat, sits on the doorstep of number 10, Downing Street in central London on December 23, 2012. LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images
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