<p>Thousands of people flocked to St Peter's Basilica as Benedict began presiding over the ceremony. Many more followed the proceedings on giant video screens in St Peter's Square, on a mild but wet winter's night.<br /><br />Benedict, wearing golden robes and his bishop's mitre, walked into the Basilica in procession with other clerics. The pontiff stopped occasionally, briefly greeting well-wishers, many of them holding camera phones.<br /><br />During the same event in 2009, a Swiss-born woman, Susanna Maiolo, jumped over a barrier and lunged at the pontiff, knocking him down. Benedict was unhurt in the resulting fracas, but an elderly cardinal suffered a broken leg.<br /><br />Maiolo had already tried to accost the pontiff during the 2008 Christmas Mass but was blocked by security guards.<br /><br />As in 2009, Friday's midnight mass began at 10 p.m. (2100 GMT) instead of midnight - an earlier slot aimed to give the 83-year-old pontiff a few extra hours of sleep before his Christmas Day duties, the Vatican said.<br /><br />In his mass homily, the leader of the world's more than one billion Catholics was expected to stress that Jesus' coming - the event that Christians celebrate at Christmas - gives mankind the hope that lasting peace will be achieved on Earth.<br /><br />Earlier, the Vatican unveiled in St Peter's Square its Nativity scene, recreating the scene of Jesus' birth - a custom revived in 1982.<br /><br />The story narrates how Jesus' mother, Mary, and her husband, Joseph, unable to find lodging, seek shelter in a stable and using a manger, or livestock feeding trough, as a crib for the infant. <br /><br />This year, the traditional Nativity figures are complemented by a set of nine statues created by Filipino sculptor Kublai Ponce-Millan. These include musicians playing indigenous instruments and a family in a boat pulling a net, heavy with fish.<br /><br />The statues are a gift from the Philippines government to mark next year's 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the majority Catholic Asian nation and the Vatican.<br /><br />The Nativity scene stands next to the Vatican's Christmas tree - this year a 34-metre-high Norwegian spruce from Italy's northeastern Alpine region of Alto Adige.<br /><br />Benedict has encouraged Catholics to display their own Nativity scenes and Christmas trees, both "spiritual" symbols representing Christ's appearance on Earth, according to the German-born pontiff.<br /><br />On Saturday, Benedict was scheduled to deliver his Christmas Day blessings and traditional Urbi et Orbi message "to the city and to the world."</p>
<p>Thousands of people flocked to St Peter's Basilica as Benedict began presiding over the ceremony. Many more followed the proceedings on giant video screens in St Peter's Square, on a mild but wet winter's night.<br /><br />Benedict, wearing golden robes and his bishop's mitre, walked into the Basilica in procession with other clerics. The pontiff stopped occasionally, briefly greeting well-wishers, many of them holding camera phones.<br /><br />During the same event in 2009, a Swiss-born woman, Susanna Maiolo, jumped over a barrier and lunged at the pontiff, knocking him down. Benedict was unhurt in the resulting fracas, but an elderly cardinal suffered a broken leg.<br /><br />Maiolo had already tried to accost the pontiff during the 2008 Christmas Mass but was blocked by security guards.<br /><br />As in 2009, Friday's midnight mass began at 10 p.m. (2100 GMT) instead of midnight - an earlier slot aimed to give the 83-year-old pontiff a few extra hours of sleep before his Christmas Day duties, the Vatican said.<br /><br />In his mass homily, the leader of the world's more than one billion Catholics was expected to stress that Jesus' coming - the event that Christians celebrate at Christmas - gives mankind the hope that lasting peace will be achieved on Earth.<br /><br />Earlier, the Vatican unveiled in St Peter's Square its Nativity scene, recreating the scene of Jesus' birth - a custom revived in 1982.<br /><br />The story narrates how Jesus' mother, Mary, and her husband, Joseph, unable to find lodging, seek shelter in a stable and using a manger, or livestock feeding trough, as a crib for the infant. <br /><br />This year, the traditional Nativity figures are complemented by a set of nine statues created by Filipino sculptor Kublai Ponce-Millan. These include musicians playing indigenous instruments and a family in a boat pulling a net, heavy with fish.<br /><br />The statues are a gift from the Philippines government to mark next year's 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the majority Catholic Asian nation and the Vatican.<br /><br />The Nativity scene stands next to the Vatican's Christmas tree - this year a 34-metre-high Norwegian spruce from Italy's northeastern Alpine region of Alto Adige.<br /><br />Benedict has encouraged Catholics to display their own Nativity scenes and Christmas trees, both "spiritual" symbols representing Christ's appearance on Earth, according to the German-born pontiff.<br /><br />On Saturday, Benedict was scheduled to deliver his Christmas Day blessings and traditional Urbi et Orbi message "to the city and to the world."</p>