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Region celebrates Christmas season

It wasn't quite Santa Claus coming down the chimney, but as people across Asia celebrated Christmas, a tiny bit of Australia got just as big a surprise -- they woke up to snow on the ground.

In some places where wildfires have been raging for weeks, residents were astonished to have a white Christmas.

"It's unusual but not without precedent," meteorologist Shane Wells said. "It's only happened a few times."

Snowfalls were recorded at Mount Wellington near Hobart, capital of the island state Tasmania, and Mount Buller in the state of Victoria, which experienced the fiercest blazes.

Paul Koenig of the Mount Buller Chalet said the snow was unexpected after the local area had been blackened by fire for weeks.

"I didn't actually believe it until it actually came last night," he told ABC radio.

"It was great -- it sort of makes you feel like Christmas," he said.

Elsewhere, more traditional celebrations were in full swing in Australia -- where Christmas falls smack in the middle of the summer.

Backpackers jammed Sydney's famed Bondi Beach while English cricket fans held barbecues on the banks of Melbourne's Yarra River on the eve of the fourth Ashes Test.

Meanwhile there were no reports of violence that Australians feared during the religious holiday season.

In the Philippines, where more than 80 percent of the population is Roman Catholic, mass was celebrated throughout the country.

The government, in the spirit of the season, called a unilateral ceasefire with insurgents, although the rebels refused to reciprocate.

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