1Members of the clergy pray in the Grotto, where Christians believe the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus, in the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. (Reuters)

2A child touches an idol of baby Jesus in a church in Jammu, India. (AP)

3People light candles during a Christmas mass in Alexander Nevski cathedral in Sofia, Bulgaria. (Reuters)

4Swiss guards line up as they wait for Pope Benedict XVI to deliver his "Urbi et Orbi" (to the City and to the World) speech from the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. (AP)

5Members of Occupy London share food and drink on Christmas Day at their encampment outside St Paul's Cathedral in London. (Reuters)

6Beach goers wearing Santa hats play in the surf on Christmas Day at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. (AP)

7Father Frost, the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus, greets people during a parade in central St. Petersburg, Russia. (Reuters)

8Members of the Cryophil amateur winter bathing club take part in a fancy-dress bathing performance on the bank of the Yenisei River as they celebrate the upcoming New Year in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. (Reuters)

9Christians hold candles as they pray on Christmas Eve at a cathedral in Surabaya, in Indonesia's East Java province, December 24, 2011. (Reuters)

10Water froze in a fountain at Chunggaechun Stream in Seoul, South Korea as temperatures dropped as low as minus 11 degrees Celsius (12 Fahrenheit) during Christmas, local media reported.

11A white whale forms a ring at Kamogawa Sea World in Kamogawa, in Chiba, east of Tokyo, Japan. (AP)