In Photos: Christmas in the Middle East celebrated with Santa 'Sahlab' and festive dabke

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa leads a Christmas midnight mass at Saint Catherine's Church, in the Church of the Nativity in the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on 25 December (AFP/Ahmad Gharbali)

A nun crosses herself as she descends to enter the crypt of the grotto, believed to be the site of the birth of Jesus, at the Church of the Nativity on Christmas day (AFP/Hazem Bader)

A pilgrim prostrates in prayer before the grotto, believed to be the site of the birth of Jesus, at the crypt of the Church of the Nativity on Christmas day (AFP/Hazem Bader)

A Syrian man dressed as Santa Claus sells a sweet milk pudding, known as sahlab, at a Christmas market at al-Hatab square in Syria's northern city of Aleppo on Christmas Eve (AFP)

Father Firas Dardar, patriarchal vicar for Basra and the Gulf, walks along the nave during the Christmas Eve midnight mass at the Syriac Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart in Iraq's southern city of Basra (AFP/Hussein Faleh)

Women worshippers chant during the Christmas morning mass at the Syriac Orthodox Church of Virgin Mary in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province on Christmas day (AFP/Delil Souleiman)

A deacon stands by flags of the Holy See and Palestine by the altar during Christmas Eve service at the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Family in Gaza City (AFP/Mahmud Hams)

People attend a Christmas Eve mass in the Saint Antuan church, the largest Roman Catholic Church in Turkey's Istanbul (AFP/Ozan Kose)

A band dances dabke and plays folkloric music around a Christmas tree in Beirut's Martyr square, in Lebanon, on Christmas Eve (AFP/Anwar Amro)