London ? Worshippers brought hopes for greater peace in the coming year as they flocked to Manger Square in Bethlehem and to St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican to hear Christmas messages urging an end to violence, particularly in the Middle East. But from Indonesia to Iraq, fear overshadowed the festivities.

Few worshippers dared attend services Saturday in Baghdad, and tens of thousands of police stood on guard at packed churches in Jakarta.

But festivities were lighthearted in other corners of the globes. Australians in bikinis and Santa suits took their parties and Christmas barbecues to the beach. And in London, Madrid and Paris, the streets were nearly empty as families stayed home for their traditional Christmas dinners.

Queen Elizabeth II urged religious and cultural tolerance in multicultural Britain in her traditional Christmas message, broadcast on television and radio.

“Religion and culture are much in the news these days, usually as sources of difference and conflict, rather than for bringing people together. But the irony is that every religion has something to say about tolerance and respecting others,” she said.

At the Vatican, thousands — many cheering and waving flags — flocked to St. Peter’s Square to hear Pope John Paul II’s traditional “Urbi et Orbi, Latin for “to the city and to the world,” message and holiday wishes in dozens of languages.

The pontiff, speaking haltingly, shared his fears about the violence in Iraq, Sudan and other hot spots, and he expressed hope that peace-building efforts would bring a brighter future.

“Babe of Bethlehem, Prophet of peace, encourage attempts to promote dialogue and reconciliation. Sustain the efforts to build peace, which hesitantly, yet not without hope, are being made to bring about a more tranquil present and future for so many of our brothers and sisters of the world,” John Paul said.

Hundreds of worshippers marched through the streets of the Beit Sahur village in the West Bank, holding candles and singing.

Indonesian divers dressed in Santa Claus costumes swim inside an aquarium at the Sea World in Jakarta, Indonesia. Despite the celebratory mood, tens of thousands of police stood guard outside churches in the nation, where Islamic militants have struck repeatedly against Westerners.

In Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus Christ, a new thaw in Israeli-Palestinian relations drew several thousand more pilgrims than last year as Israeli troops eased passage through checkpoints into the West Bank city.

Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, the senior Roman Catholic official in the Holy Land, called on Israelis and Palestinians to put violence behind them.

“Our situation continues to be a situation of conflict, violence, insecurity, fear, military occupation, the wall of separation, of imprisoned cities and demolitions,” he said at St. Catherine’s Church adjacent Manger Square.

“Palestine and Israel must conquer the evil of violence … and give birth to a new society of brothers and sisters in which no one controls the other, no one is occupied by the other, no one causes insecurity for the other, no one takes liberty from the other,” he said.