Signs of the Season

Dancers from the Romanian region of Moldova perform rituals for good luck in the New Year in Iasi, 450 kilometers north of Bucharest. In pre-Christian rural traditions dancers would visit house to house in villages singing and dancing to ward off evil.  (AP Photo/Paul Buciuta)

Russia’s Grandfather Frost waves from a white cabriolet on Red Square in Moscow, as Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, right, looks on. Grandfather Frost arrived in Moscow after touring country’s cities to take part in the New Year celebrations on Red Square.  (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)

Preparations are under way for the traditional New Year’s Eve celebration.  (STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)

Muscovites walk past a huge decorated Christmas tree installed for New Year celebrations in Moscow. New Year is the most popular holiday in Russia, and is followed by the Orthodox Christmas on Jan. 7.  (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II after filming this year’s Christmas broadcast at Southwark Cathedral, south London. Queen Elizabeth II delivered her traditional pre-recorded annual Christmas message to Britain and the Commonwealth.  (FIONA HANSON/AFP/Getty Images)

Some unique gifts at Washington’s Union Station include this hand made Afro-centric Santa Claus ornament.  (TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images)

A man dressed as a Father Frost (Santa Claus) walks along a Black Sea’s coast in the Russian southern resort city of Sochi.  (DENIS SINYAKOV/AFP/Getty Images)

Rabbis Samuel Segal (L) and Jehuda Teichtal of the Jews of Berlin’s Jewish Education Center build up a candleholder “Menorah” next to the city’s landmark Brandenburg Gate.  (MARCUS BRANDT/AFP/Getty Images)

Performers sing Christmas carol at a shopping mall in Jakarta. Christmas brings a season of festivities to the people of this world largest Muslim populated nation, though only about nine percent of 224 million Indonesians are Christians.  (JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)

Fireworks explode over the Athens’ Christmas tree during its launching ceremony at the central city’s Syntagma square.  (LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP/Getty Images)

Two young children dressed in Santa Claus outfits ride atop a camel close to the landmark Taj Mahal monument in Agra.  (STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images)

Leslie Morton of Paris, Tx., walks through Arlington National Cemetery outside of Washington, D.C. after laying Christmas wreaths.  (Pete Souza / Chicago Tribune)

A member of the Civil Air Patrol volunteering, passes out some of the 5,000 donated Maine balsam fir holiday wreaths to volunteers. The wreaths will be placed on some of the 300,000 grave stones at Arlington National Cemetery.  (PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)

Mounted police officers patrol in front of a New Year Tree at the center of Moscow.  (ALEXANDER TITORENKO/AFP/Getty Images)

People look at Christmas decorations and seasonal illuminations during the opening of the annual “Christkindl” market on Vienna’s City Hall Square which attract thousands of residents and tourists.  (SAMUEL KUBANI/AFP/Getty Images)

Radio City Rockettes (L-R) Shayna Harris, Cheryl Herbert-Cutlip, Megan Schenck and Lori Barber hold up four puppies from Long Island’s North Shore Animal League America before the start of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall.  (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)

A man prepares a Christmas tree, made of bicycles welded together Amsterdam.  (EVERT ELZINGA/AFP/Getty Images)

A Christmas tree is reflected in a fountain at Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz square.  (JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images)

Manchester United’s football player Cristiano Ronaldo distributed Christmas gifts to Portuguese children living in the area of Obidos, Portugal.  (Karl Walter/Getty Images)

Cee-Lo of Gnarls Barkley performs at 106.7 KROQ’s “Almost Acoustic Christmas” at Gibson Ampitheater at Universal Studios.  (Karl Walter/Getty Images)

Santa Claus dressed in a green suit is surrounded by nursely school children as he gives out flower seeds at the Kozunomori nursery school in Narita city, suburban Tokyo.  (YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images)

Children dance around the biggest glass Christmas tree in the world, measuring 8.52meters in the Campo Santo Stefano square in central Murano, an island in the Venice lagoon. The tree was made by Venetian glass artist Simone Cenedese  (ANDREA PATTARO/AFP/Getty Images)

Angel Zubia, of BGA Inc., secures a live Douglas fir Christmas tree from Oregon to the roof of a customer’s car in El Paso.  (AP Photo/The El Paso Times, Rudy Gutierrez)

John Beasley from Pompano Beach, Fla., leaves parking lot at Pompano Harness Track in Pompano Beach, Fla. The track was the starting point for the 19th annual Christmas Toys in the Sun Run. The largest beneficiary of the event is the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, Fla.  (AP Photo/South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Joe Cavaretta)