Photos: Ho, ho, ho and Merry Christmas!

Carols, joyful tidings, presents, beautifully decorated trees, bright lights and a time for heartfelt prayer... As the world readies for the festival of Christmas, we bring you glimpses.

Little Santa Clauses gather around a girl dressed as the Virgin Mary during Christmas celebrations at a church in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh. 

In Peru, the government organised a Christmas music show for more than 600 children from public orphanages in Lima.

As part of the Christmas celebrations at the Government Palace, dancers dressed as Santa Claus and an elf perform for the children, who were then given their presents.

Worshippers at the Church of Nativity, which is revered as the site of Jesus's birth.

The Church of Nativity is located in the West Bank town of Bethlehem.

A Greek Orthodox priest walks inside the Church of the Nativity, which is being readied for the Christmas mass. 

The houses at Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, are beautifully decorated for Christmas.

No wonder, these New Yorkers can't help stopping by for a look.

Here's a little one who's very happy with her present...

She hugs both her puppy and her new toy after a Christmas celebration organised by Carros de Fuego, a Catholic organisation that donates free toys, at the Hernando Siles Stadium in La Paz, Bolivia.

Gautemalan firefighter Hector Chacon, dressed as Santa Claus, rappels down from the Belize bridge to give toys to the children living under the bridge.

Every year, for the last 16 years, he has arranged for firefighters to dress as Santa Claus and give out toys during Christmas to the children living in the poor neighbourhood under the bridge.

People shop at a Christmas market on the South Bank in London.

A giant Christmas tree stands in the middle of the Galeries Lafayette department store as people finish their holiday shopping.    

Christmas illuminations light the Vaci shopping street in downtown Budapest.

Thomasina McManus, who's all of five years, is engrossed in the toy display at a window in the iconic Selfridges store on London's Oxford Street.

A woman dressed as Mrs Claus sings a song for the orphaned children who were invited by the Peruvian government for a Christmas celebration at the Government Palace in Lima.

A worker creates an ice sculpture of horses in front of a giant Christmas tree to celebrate Christmas at the Youth Theatre in Darkhan city, Mongolia.

A miniature replica of Noah's Ark is seen in this nativity scene sculpture display prepared by the Sabate family in Luque, near Asuncion, in Paraguay.

The Sabate family is preparing their traditional Christmas hydraulic display for the 60th year.

The survivors of Typhoon Haiyan queue in front of a Christmas tree during a gift giving activity inside an astrodome at Tacloban city, central Philippines.

The typhoon had reduced almost everything in its path to rubble when it swept ashore on November 8, killing at least 6,069 people, leaving 1,779 missing and 4 million either homeless or with damaged homes.

People dressed as villagers from ancient Bethlehem sing Christmas carols as they take part in a re-enactment of the nativity scene, in the southern Spanish town of Arcos de la Frontera.

Visitors take photographs of penguins wearing Santa Claus and Christmas tree costumes at an amusement park in Yongin, south of Seoul.

A man dressed as Santa Claus poses with people during Christmas celebrations near the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City.

Winter swimmers wearing Santa Claus hats get out of a partially frozen lake in China's Shenyang, Liaoning province.

They swam in its icy water to celebrate Christmas. Brrrr!

Christmas ornaments are cased in ice following an ice storm in Toronto.