People around the world are celebrating Christmas.

On Christmas Eve in Beijing, more than 15-hundred people packed into the 407-year old Church of the Immaculate Conception in Beijing to celebrate midnight mass - while many more stood outside watching services on two big TV monitors.

Ma Shuncai, a Beijing resident said Christmas has become a popular festival in in China.

"I think the Christmas Festival is very suitable for the Chinese. Although it is a foreign festival, but we can learn something from the religion."

According to statistics, there are more than 21 million Christian church members in China, and more than 50 million Bibles have been printed.

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Elsewhere around the world, Europeans are cutting back on Christmas expenses as they try to keep the fires of festive cheer burning in tough economic times.

And the situation in the United States is similar.