JERUSALEM -- It's Christmastime in the Holy Land, but unless you celebrate the holiday or know someone who does, you might not even realize it.
In Israel, which is predominantly Jewish, and in the Palestinian Authority, overwhelmingly Muslim, you won't find any sidewalk Santas camped outside department stores or enticing kids to the toy department.
"Jingle Bell Rock" doesn't play in the background as you do your holiday shopping, and TV commercials don't count down the number of shopping days till Christmas.
Even in such Christian enclaves as Bethlehem and Nazareth, where several thousand families celebrate the holiday with special church services, school pageants and concerts, the atmosphere is low-key, at least by Western standards.
Part of the reason is practical: The ongoing violence between Palestinians and Israelis has scared away tourists, hurting the many Christians who derive, or used to derive, their livelihood from pilgrimages.
There's also a cultural element: Local Christians, most of them Arabs, are a minority here and elsewhere in the Middle East. Even before the intifada, they tended to maintain a relatively low profile.
Christians from abroad are inevitably surprised -- even shocked -- by the lack of yuletide hoopla, but many say they find the simplicity of a Holy Land Christmas not only refreshing but spiritually uplifting.
"I like the fact that it's not commercial," said Jennifer Griffin, a Fox News correspondent who has lived in Jerusalem for four years. "It means you have to go the extra mile in creating your own Christmas environment."
For Griffin, an Episcopalian from Alexandria, Va., celebrating Christmas in the Holy Land has meant "re-creating what I remember from my childhood but without the malls and commercials telling me what Christmas should be. We can pick and choose what we want to emphasize. That makes it even better."
Griffin spent her first Holy Land Christmas in front of the camera covering the pre-millennium festivities at Manger Square.
"Unfortunately Bethlehem is a little bleak these days, but the first millennium celebration was incredible," the journalist recalled. "We were in Manger Square and people from around the world were singing Christmas carols. We had to do live shots all night long and I remember watching the sunrise over the Church of the Nativity. It was one of my most memorable experiences here."
While Griffin, the mother of two little girls, admits to feeling some nostalgia for holiday movies and Nat King Cole tunes, "there's the flip side," she said. "Our older daughter isn't being inundated with commercials and people marketing things to her. She's not talking about Santa Claus all the time. She's asked for only one present this year."
"I don't miss all the commercial aspects," agreed Griffin's husband, Greg Myre, a Jerusalem-based New York Times correspondent. Even so, he marvels at just how understated a Holy Land Christmas can be.
"I've gone to work and my Jewish and Muslim colleagues didn't even realize it was Christmas Day," said Myre, a Presbyterian raised in St. Louis. "It's not that they were dismissive, it's just that they didn't notice. It's like when many Americans aren't aware of a Jewish or Muslim holiday."
David Parsons, an evangelical Christian who serves as the information officer of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, said, "There is something special about being here in the land of Israel because it is the land of his (Jesus') birth."
Parsons, from Kill Devil Hills, N.C., said the many years he has lived in the Holy Land have strengthened his faith.
