This undated handout image received on December 26, 2024 from the State Control Centre of the Victoria Emergency Services shows smoke rising from a nearby bushfire behind vehicles in the Grampians National Park in Australia's Victoria state. (Photo by Victoria Emergency Services via AFP Photo)




People light candles during the Day of the Little Candles (“Dia de las velitas”) in Envigado, Antioquia department, Colombia, on December 7, 2024. The Day of the Little Candles is a traditional Colombian celebration of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, marking the beginning of the Christmas season. (Photo by Jaime Saldarriaga/AFP Photo)




Christmas lights are pictured in via Lagrange in Turin, on December 10, 2024. (Photo by Isabella Bonotto/AFP Photo)




People walks past the Christmas tree displayed outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on December 16, 2024. (Photo by Charly Triballeau/AFP Photo)




This photograph taken on December 17, 2024, shows Christmas trees and decorations illuminated in Thessaloniki. (Photo by Sakis Mitrolidis/AFP Photo)




Volunteer Jorge Alberto Barroso, dressed as Santa Claus, poses for a picture with children upon arrival to deliver presents in the riverside community of Abelha, in the city of Manaus, Amazonas State, northern Brazil, on December 20, 2024. Since 1998, the “Friends of Santa Claus” group has been promoting Christmas for children in rural and riverside communities in the Amazon rainforest. (Photo by Michael Dantas/AFP Photo)




People gather to shop ahead of Christmas, at the illuminated Church Street in Bengaluru on December 21, 2024. (Photo by Idrees Mohammed/AFP Photo)




A man dressed as Santa Claus stands in front of decorations in the Christmas market in Pristina on December 21, 2024. (Photo by Armend Nimani/AFP Photo)




People take photos at a Christmas market in downtown Washington, DC, December 21, 2024. (Photo by Richard Pierrin/AFP Photo)




A woman poses for pictures next to a Christmas tree in a shop selling Russian products in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province on December 22, 2024, ahead of the fifth anniversary of China confirming its first death from the Covid-19 coronavirus. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP Photo)




People visit the illuminated St. Paul's Church ahead of the Christmas celebrations in Amritsar on December 22, 2024. (Photo by Narinder Nanu/AFP Photo)




People visit a Christmas market in Souk Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai on December 22, 2024. (Photo by Fadel Senna/AFP Photo)




A restaurant worker hangs a Merry Christmas sign on a Christmas tree as they set it up outside a restaurant on December 19, 2024 in Beijing, China. While Christmas is not a national holiday in China, the country is home to more than 40 million Christians, and the holiday has grown in popularity with the non-religious in recent years as a colourful commercial festival. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)




A woman poses for a photograph underneath a Santa Claus light display at the Damascus Christmas market on December 22, 2024 in Damascus, Syria. On December 8, rebel forces in Syria retook the capital and several other cities from longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, who fled the country for Moscow. The fall of the Assad regime marks a new chapter for Syria, which has been mired in a multi-party civil war since 2011, sparked by the Arab Spring uprisings. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)




Women touch the image of Saint Benedict as they participate in the Marujada in Braganca, Para State, Brazil, on December 26, 2024. A cultural heritage of Brazil, the Marujada is a traditional nine-day religious festival that pays homage to Saint Benedict (Sao Benedito), the “black saint”, and has one of its highlights on Christmas Day. (Photo by Anderson Coelho/AFP Photo)




Revellers dressed in mock military garb take part in “Els Enfarinats” flour-battle in the southeastern Spanish town of Ibi on December 28, 2024. In this 200-year-old traditional winter festival, the participants –known as Els Enfarinats (those covered in flour) – dress in military clothes and stage a mock coup d'etat as they battle using flour, eggs and firecrackers outside the town hall as part of the celebrations of the Day of the Innocents, a traditional day in Spain for pulling pranks. (Photo by Jaime Reina/AFP Photo)




A wedding takes place on the beach in Cape Canaveral, FL as Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket prepares for the first hot fire of its engines on Friday, December 27, 2024 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL. (Photo by USA Today)




Visitors look on outside The Carter Presidential Center following the death of Jimmy Carter in Atlanta, Georgia on December 29, 2024. The 39th president of the United States died today in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. He was 100. (Photo by USA Today)