Let me tell you something.

Do you believe the children how stress are?

In the beginning, when they came here, they like shocked.

Oh, Santa, are you going to open Santa House?

Are you coming because of the war?

I cannot promise them because I didn't know what's going on.

But I say, let's pray together and I'm coming. But it's not easy. Yeah, because I read't know what's going on, but I say, let's pray together and I'm coming.

But it's not easy.

Yeah, because I read that a lot of church leaders here in Jerusalem

have been asking to not celebrate Christmas in the same ways that they usually do, right?

I think Bethlehem is not going to be decorated.

Yeah, well, listen, this is them choices, the churches, okay, as a religion side, but it's not good for children.

Hey, listeners, it's Mishi.

So, as you hopefully know, we're in the middle of our annual listener drive.

If you haven't yet done so, I really hope you contribute.

But we're also continuing with our wartime

diaries. These, of course, aren't exactly stories, but rather quick conversations, or postcards,

that try to capture slivers of life right now. So it's a sad Christmas Eve here in Jesus' homeland. The alleyways of Jerusalem's

old city, the streets of Nazareth, the churches of Bethlehem, all usually bustling with countless

pilgrims and tourists from all over the world, are this year, largely empty. There are no trees, no stars, no sparkling lights.

Christmas has essentially been cancelled. And not just as a figure of speech. Back in November,

the patriarchs and heads of practically all the local Christian denominations

...