Pope kicks off Christmas under shadow of war

Christmas revelers around the world donned red and white Santa hats, offered meals to the homeless and lit candles on Wednesday, as Pope Francis launched observation of the global holiday with a sombre mass in the Vatican.

At Saint Peter's Basilica, Francis used his Christmas Eve mass to urge Christians to think "of the wars, of the machine-gunned children, of the bombs on schools or hospitals" as this year's Christmas once again takes place under the shadow of Israel's war on Hamas and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

His remarks come just days after he denounced the "cruelty" of Israeli strikes, which prompted objections from Israeli diplomats.

Francis is due to deliver his traditional Christmas Day blessing, Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world), at midday on Wednesday, while in the biblical birthplace of Jesus, the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, observations of the holiday have been muted.

For the second year in a row, Bethlehem has done away with its giant Christmas tree and the elaborate decorations that normally draw throngs of tourists, settling for just a few festive lights.

"This year we limited our joy," Bethlehem mayor Anton Salman told AFP.

Prayers, including at the Church of the Nativity's famed midnight mass, will still be held in the presence of the Catholic Church's Latin patriarch, but the festivities will be of a more strictly religious nature.

The patriarch, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, told a small crowd on Tuesday that he had just returned from Gaza, where he "saw everything destroyed, poverty, disaster".

"But I also saw life -- they don't give up. So you should not give up either. Never."

At Manger Square, in the heart of the Palestinian city, a group of scouts held a parade that broke the silence.

"Our children want to play and laugh," read a sign carried by one of them, as his friends whistled and cheered.