A crowd gathers around a merry-go-round on the Roemer Square in downtown Frankfurt, western Germany, as they visit the Frankfurt Christmas Market. The seasonal market offers all sorts of Christmas goods and decorations.
Germany
People stroll around a 150-foot-high Christmas tree at a Christmas market in downtown Dortmund, Germany. The huge Christmas tree is made of 1,700 pine trees and more than 13,000 lights.
France
Visitors gather at the Christmas Market in downtown Strasbourg, France. The 432-year-old market attracts visitors for four weeks until Dec. 31, offering original gifts, traditional Christmas decorations as well as Christmas sweets and hot wines. The Strasbourg Cathedral is seen behind.
The Champs-Elysees
Trees lining the Champs-Elysees in Paris come to life with 135,000 white lights, illuminating the stretch from Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe, seen in background.
Brazil
Groceries are added to shopping carts hanging from a 50-foot-high Christmas tree in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A mining company, with non-governmental organizations, added two pounds of groceries for every two pounds donated during the campaign against hunger. About 150 tons of groceries will be distributed among families in need.
Rome
People crowd Piazza Venezia Square as they stroll in downtown Rome for Christmas shopping.
The Vatican
Pigeons fly past a 92-foot Christmas tree donated by Croatia as a crane lifts it in St. Peter's square at the Vatican.
Moscow
Municipal workers decorate a Christmas tree just outside the Moscow Kremlin, with a red star atop a Kremlin tower in the background. New Year's is the biggest holiday of the year in Russia, and is followed by the Orthodox Christmas on Jan. 7.
Japan
Piaget, the Swiss maker of watches and jewelry, claims this is the world's most expensive Christmas tree. It's a 20-foot tree covered in such items as a diamond-studded watch worth $1.23 million. The tree was on display in Tokyo.
Kuwait
Nabeel Gharabally, a Kuwaiti banking researcher, shows his children a Christmas display at a supermarket in Kuwait City. Gharabally said he wanted to show his children what Christmas looked like, since Yuletide displays in public are rare in the strongly Muslim nation.
The Philippines
Workers hang a large Christmas lantern along a major boulevard in suburban Pasay, south of Manila, in preparation for the longest holiday celebration of the year in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation. Sign at bottom of lantern reads "Merry Christmas."
New York
The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree stands lit in front of the General Electric building in New York's Rockefeller Plaza, during the 70th annual tree lighting ceremony Dec. 4, 2002.
Another Viewpoint
Here's another view of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. The 76-foot Norway spruce, from Bloomsbury, N.J., is illuminated with 30,000 lights in the famed plaza in midtown Manhattan.
Washington
The National Christmas tree, a 40-foot Colorado blue spruce from York, Pa., stands tall in Washington.