BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Scouts marched under a clear blue sky and bagpipes sent familiar carols ricocheting off stone alleys, as Bethlehem stepped out from the shadow of the Gaza war to celebrate its first festive Christmas in more than two years.
For two consecutive holiday seasons, the biblical birthplace of Jesus scaled back gatherings amid the war that began after the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023. This year, with a fragile truce holding in the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank city restored the sights and sounds that make Christmas here a global touchstone: crowded streets, swelling marching bands and a towering tree glittering beside the Church of the Nativity.
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At Manger Square, the drumbeats drew families and pilgrims shoulder to shoulder. Children in crisp uniforms wove past the municipality building, where spectators leaned over balconies to catch a view. The Christmas tree, dressed in red and gold baubles, threw warm light across the stone forecourt of the fourth century basilica built over the grotto where Christians believe Jesus was born.
“Today is full of joy because we haven’t been able to celebrate because of the war,” said Milagros Anstas, 17, wearing the yellow and blue of Bethlehem’s Salesian scout troop as she waited with her bandmates along Star Street.
Hundreds joined the parade that snaked through Bethlehem’s narrow lanes, a procession of drums, brass and flags that felt at once festive and resolute. After two austere seasons defined by grief and uncertainty, residents said simply gathering was an act of endurance — and a message.
“It gives us hope that there’s still Christians here celebrating and we are still keeping the traditions,” said scout member Katiab Amaya, 18. “These celebrations are more of hope to our people in Gaza … that they will one day celebrate and live life again.”
Bethlehem’s municipality chose to tone down past festivities as fighting raged in Gaza, the coastal territory separated from the West Bank by Israel. The current U.S.-brokered cease-fire has paused full-scale combat, though hundreds of thousands of Gazans are enduring winter in makeshift tents after losing homes and loved ones.
That paradox — joy in Bethlehem alongside ongoing misery a short drive away — colored much of Sunday’s celebration. Even as the bands played, conversations returned to family members displaced by the war, to livelihoods lost, to the wish that a pause might become something durable.
In Rome, Pope Leo XIV was due to deliver his first Christmas Mass at Saint Peter’s Basilica, following a call for “24 hours of peace in the whole world.” Less publicly charismatic than his predecessor, Leo has nonetheless followed Francis’ course on issues including migration and social justice, an approach closely watched by Christians across the Holy Land.
Bethlehem’s spiritual calendar was anchored, as ever, by the arrival of Jerusalem’s Latin Patriarch, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who entered the city to preside over the traditional Midnight Mass at the Church of the Nativity. The senior cleric visited war-battered Gaza over the weekend, celebrating Mass at Holy Family Parish in Gaza City and meeting congregants living through the war’s aftermath.
Commerce and faith are uniquely intertwined here. In normal times, the holidays bring a torrent of tour buses and souvenir hunters to the limestone streets. When conflict empties Manger Square, it ripples through livelihoods — guides, innkeepers, drivers, restaurateurs and artisans whose work depends on the footfall.
“Bethlehem is a very special place,” said George Hanna, who traveled from nearby Beit Jala to join the revelers. “We need to get the message to the whole world and this is the only way. What is Christmas without celebrating?”
The war’s long chill on travel left hotels quiet and unemployment soaring, residents said. In recent months, however, Christian pilgrims have begun returning, cautiously at first and then in growing numbers. Sunday’s crowd, dense enough in Manger Square that movement slowed to a shuffle, offered a powerful signal to vendors and tour operators that a recovery could yet take root.
Along Star Street — the traditional route Mary and Joseph are said to have taken into Bethlehem — scouts kept time with snares and cymbals. A few buildings away, balconies draped with string lights turned into viewing stands. Children traded candy canes. Parents lifted toddlers onto shoulders. Cellphones rose by the dozens to catch the sweep of the parade as it bent toward the basilica.
The scene here echoed a broader, if uneven, return to ritual far beyond the West Bank. Families across the world gathered for Christmas Eve dinners, churches filled for candlelight services and children counted the hours until their gifts. The flight-tracking site Flightradar24 revived its widely followed Santa tracker, with Father Christmas’ sleigh skimming across digital maps from the North Pole toward waiting rooftops.
Not all holiday messages were light. In Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese struck a somber tone in the wake of the recent attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach. “Wherever you are across our wonderful country, Christmas will feel different this year,” he said. “After the terror inflicted on Jewish Australia celebrating Hanukkah and Bondi Beach, we feel the weight of sorrow in our hearts.”
In Bethlehem, the day’s mood never strayed far from the heavy months that preceded it. The procession paused at intervals, as organizers allowed bottlenecks to thin. A few faces streaked with tears; many more broke into smiles as the bands resumed. Minutes before sundown, the square’s chatter swelled, animated by the promise of Midnight Mass and the late-night reunions that travel and time had delayed.
By nightfall, the tree beside the Nativity glowed bright against the winter sky, a beacon that many here said they hoped would be seen far beyond Manger Square. In a city where faith is woven into daily life, Christmas this year felt like both a return and a plea — for stability, for visitors, for a future that looks more like the scenes that unfolded again Sunday.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
