While security arrangements in Europe were in place for Christmas, people across the Middle East, Pakistan and India celebrated Christmas with jubilation (Photo: AP)
Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, center, apostolic administrator of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, leads the Christmas Midnight Mass in Saint Catherine's Church at the Church of the Nativity, where Christians believe the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ, in the adjacent Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, West Bank (Photo: AP)
U.S. Army personal light candles dring Christmas Eve's Mass in the Assyrian Orthodox church of Mart Shmoni, in Bartella, Iraq (Photo: AP)
An Iraqi Christian woman lights candles before a Christmas Eve Mass at a church in Basra, 340 miles (550 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq (Photo: AP)
French Police officers patrol near Notre Dame Cathedral as worshippers arrive for the Christmas eve mass in Paris, France (Photo: AP)
A girl poses for a photo in front of Lithuania's biggest Christmas tree during a Christmas celebration at Cathedral Square in Vilnius, Lithuania (Photo: AP)
Ded Moroz (Grandfather Frost, the Russian Santa Claus) rides a quad bike as he arrives for the festivities of incoming New Year and Christmas at the Dvortsovaya (Palace) Square in St.Petersburg (Photo: AP)
Pakistani Christians visit a grave of their family member at a graveyard ahead of Christmas in Karachi, Pakistan (Photo: AP)
Pakistani Christians attend midnight service at Saint Anthony's church on Christmas eve in Lahore, Pakistan (Photo: AP)
Sri Lanka has unveiled a towering Christmas tree, claiming to have surpassed the world record for the tallest artificial Christmas tree (Photo: AP)
Catholic christians participate at a Christmas Eve mass in Sent Antuan church, the largest church of the Roman Catholic Church in Istanbul (Photo: AP)
Faithful gather around the altar during the Christmas Eve Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican (Photo: AP)
Indians shop on the eve of Christmas in Hyderabad, India, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2016. Though the Hindus and Muslims comprise majority of the population in India, Christmas is a national holiday celebrated with much fanfare (Photo: AP)
Season's first snowfall in Shimla Shimla: Tourists enjoy first snowfall of the season on the Christmas eve (Photo: PTI)
A girls sells Santa caps and masks at a traffic intersection on the Christmas eve in New Delhi, India (Photo: AP)
A pair of Muslim children run through a Christmas display at a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Photo: AP)