Christians Around The World Celebrated Christmas

• 25.12.2025, 8:34

The holiday is celebrated by Catholics, Uniates, Protestants and most Orthodox Christians.

Today Christmas is celebrated by Catholics, Uniates, Protestants, as well as the Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania, Hellas, Ukraine and some other Orthodox churches that live by the New Julian calendar.

The Belarusian Orthodox parish of Vilnius, which belongs to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, also celebrates Christmas by the Gregorian calendar - on December 25, not January 7.

In more than 145 countries around the world, Christmas is an official public holiday and one of the major religious holidays of the year.

The Christmas Eve service at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican was held for the first time by Pope Leo XIV, according to BBC.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church has previously called for "24 hours of peace in the world" on Christmas Day, but his call was not heeded. This week, the pontiff said he was "very saddened" by Russia's rejection of a Christmas truce on the war in Ukraine (Moscow has maintained that it wants real peace and has no intention of giving Kiev time to rearm).

At the service, Lev spoke of Christmas as a holiday of "faith, charity and hope" and criticized a "distorted economy" that "threatens to treat people as mere commodities."

Air alarm sirens sounded as usual on Christmas night in Ukraine. The AFU air force reported that kamikaze drones were moving towards Kiev.

Before that, Christmas services were held in Ukrainian churches. This is the third year Ukraine has celebrated Christmas on December 25.

In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fighting in the AFU are celebrating Christmas at the front.