Laurie Goering, who spent five Christmases in Rio as the Chicago Tribune's South America correspondent, plans to haul out her old bikini this year for a balmy holiday in South Africa, her new posting.

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Holy Land: A Holiday in the Storm

By Joel Greenberg

The focus of Christmas in the Holy Land has traditionally been Bethlehem in the West Bank, although the town has been battered in recent years by the violent conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Midnight mass is held at St. Catherine's Basilica at the Church of the Nativity, built over the site revered by Christians as the place of Jesus' birth. Choirs perform in Manger Square, and the church service is projected outside on a large closed-circuit television screen. Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, has attended the service in the past, but he is now barred from coming by Israel, which has kept him confined to his headquarters in Ramallah.

Since the outbreak of the violence in September 2000, holiday celebrations in Bethlehem have been curtailed and limited to the religious observances. Last Christmas, Bethlehem was reoccupied by Israeli forces, and the city did not even put up holiday decorations. The Israelis pulled out in July, and Palestinian police now patrol the streets and Manger Square.

With Bethlehem under the pall of violence, many pilgrims have in recent years gone to the town of Nazareth in the Galilee region of northern Israel where, according to Christian tradition, Jesus grew up and was educated. Christmas observances and carol performances are also held at churches in Jerusalem, and the city distributes Christmas trees to Christian residents, a small minority among the city's Jews and Muslims.

Joel Greenberg, who reports from Jerusalem for the Chicago Tribune, has covered many grim and some more hopeful Christmases in Bethlehem.

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Farolito Walk a festive prelude to the holidays in Santa Fe

By Alfred Borcover

It's Christmas Eve and the cold night air is filled with the scent of pinyon wood fires, and the wintry Santa Fe sky has a mellow full-moon glow, lending a mystical feel to this City Different. Thousands and thousands of farolitos — burning candles in sand-filled brown paper bags — line the curbs, lanes, adobe walls and rooflines in the historic East Side neighborhood.