Christmas 2025: How the world celebrated the festival across continents

Pope Leo XIV waves to the faithful after delivering from the main balcony of St. Peter's Basilica the Urbi et Orbi message and blesses the city and the world as part of Christmas celebrations, at St Peter's Square in the Vatican on December 25, 2025.

Syrian scouts play music in the street as part of Christmas celebrations in the old city of Damascus on December 25, 2025.
In early December, the Syrian president urged Syrians to work together to rebuild the country as they marked a year since the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad. In the Old City, home to a small but vibrant Christian community and several important churches, red baubles hang from some trees, shopkeepers have put up Christmas decorations, and street vendors peddle warm chestnuts. The so-called neighbourhood committees are also providing additional security, with dozens of local Christians protecting churches in coordination with government forces.

Priests celebrate the Christmas Eve mass at the Church of Saint Peter, where the first religious gathering was held in the 1st century, the birth of Christianity, on December 24, 2025, in Antakya.
The first rock-cut church in Christendom, Saint Peter's now brings together the isolated Christians of Antakya, ancient Antioch, in south-eastern Turkey. Families begin on Christmas Eve to gather at the cave where Peter, the disciple of Jesus on whom he relied to found his church, held his first religious meeting in the 1st century, at the dawn of Christianity.

Bishop Youssef Anna and his assistants lead the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ with worshippers during a Christmas Eve Mass at Our Lady of Salvation Syriac Catholic Church in Baghdad on December 24, 2025

French Bishop of Chartres Monsignor Philippe Christory (C) celebrates the midnight Christmas mass at Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres in Chartres, north-central France in the early hours of December 25, 2025.

Abouna Bashar Basiel performs Christmas morning mass at the Christ the Redeemer Church in the mostly Christian town of Taybeh, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on December 25, 2025.

Participants wearing festive hats take part in a Christmas Day swim in the sea at Brighton beach, southern England, on December 25, 2025.

Tourists wearing Christmas costumes pose in front of a Christmas tree on the sand at Bondi Beach in Sydney on December 25, 2025.

Devotees gather to pray on the occasion of Christmas at a church in Amritsar on December 25, 2025

Members of the Catholic clergy and devotees attend the Christmas Eve mass at the Xishiku Church in Beijing on December 24, 2025.

Father Enrique Salvo speaks during a Christmas Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Christmas Eve on December 24, 2025, in New York

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Italian Pierbattista Pizzaballa leads a Christmas mass at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on December 25, 2025.
In Bethlehem, the Christian community celebrated its first festive Christmas in more than two years as the occupied West Bank city emerged from the shadow of the war in Gaza.