Christmas started in Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago, and now the celebration is bringing some much-needed holiday cheer right where it was born.
After years in which the horrors of the war in Gaza, 50 miles away, led to festivities to being cancelled, a fragile ceasefire has brought some hope back to the city, which sits in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Christmas Eve celebrations were in full swing on Wednesday, with a band playing underneath a large Christmas tree in Manger Square, while a traditional procession from Jerusalem led by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa was welcomed into the city.
Pizzaballa called for "a Christmas full of light" and delivered greetings from the tiny Christian community in Gaza, where he held a pre-Christmas Mass on Sunday.
"We, all together, we decide to be the light, and the light of Bethlehem is the light of the world," he told the large crowd.
Ghada Dik, a 12-year-old Palestinian Christians from Jaffa, had traveled to the celebrations with her family. "To see everybody smiling, bringing the spirit back, doing this with all their hearts makes me so happy," she said.
While times are not easy, "Christmas is not only about being happy, it's about being with everybody," she added.
Bethlehem Mayor Maher Nicola Canawati told NBC News the 2023 and 2024 celebrations were cancelled with a "broken heart and a broken soul," but the ongoing ceasefire had since reignited "the spirit of Christmas."
"This day means resilience, means hope, and means great things for the Palestinian people," he said.
"When we see the Christmas tree again, and the lights in the streets, we feel the hope come back to our hearts," Jeris Atrash, 37, a gym trainer, told NBC News on Tuesday.
His family is among the thousands of Palestinian Christians in the Muslim-majority city. "We live together in peace," he said. "Our problem is with the Israeli government."
His wife, Sandi Qumseih, a 30-year-old a teacher, said their kids were enjoying the celebration after a difficult two years in which she "struggled to answer their innocent questions about what they see on the TV, what they hear."
"So, as a mom, I'm happy for my kids this year," she added.
Bethlehem is far from the continued dire conditions in Gaza, but war and uncertainty have still hit hard in the city, which in less turbulent times receives a steady flow of Christian pilgrims and tourists looking to set foot on the birthplace of Jesus.
Canawati, the mayor, said 4,000 Palestinians have left Bethlehem since the war in Gaza began, citing a fall in tourism as well as the hardships endured under a tightening Israeli occupation. A lot more families are "really struggling" financially, Qumseih said, as the city is reliant on income from tourism and making wood-carved souvenirs.
Atrash, Qumseih's husband, had worked in tourism until just a few years ago, when the double-barreled tragedies of Covid and the war kept millions of visitors away.
Tensions remain high across the West Bank, where attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians have reached their highest level since the United Nations humanitarian office started collecting data in 2006.
While the city is comparatively quiet, it feels like "a big jail," Atrash said, citing Israeli checkpoints and soldiers restricting travel.
Israel has long argued its security presence in the West Bank is necessary to protect Israeli settlements there.
Israel's government is dominated by far-right proponents of the settler movement; over the weekend, the Israeli Cabinet approved a plan for 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Meanwhile, there are questions over how long the ceasefire in Gaza will last, with a number of details critical to a second phase still uncertain as both sides accuse the other of failing to fully deliver on their commitments.
Sticking points include plans for the deployment of an international stabilization force in Gaza, a technocratic governing body, the disarmament of Hamas and further Israeli troop withdrawals from the territory.
