Lebanese stocking stuffer: a president

It's a bittersweet holiday season for Lebanon's Christians. Not since the darkest days of its civil war 20 years ago, have Christians here  been as been as politically divided as they are nowadays. A large number of Christians support the pro-U.S. March 14 coalition while others back Michel Aoun's group, which has thrown its lot in with the Shiite Muslim militia, Hezbollah.

They're so divided they've been unable to decide on a president, which in Lebanon has long been drawn from the Christian community.

And the sniping has gotten nasty, with Maronite Archbishop Jbeil Beshara calling Aoun a "tool who can't take any decision on his own" and Aoun lashing back at Beshara's remarks as "immature, irresponsible and inexcusable."

Lebanese politicians today turned down an offer by France to try to once again mediate the months-long impasse. Meanwhile the government of Fouad Saniora unilaterally amended the constitution without parliamentary approval to allow for the ascension of army chief Gen. Michel Suleiman as president.

But despite such troubles, ordinary Lebanese Christians are celebrating the holiday in style. Churches have been packed with worshippers. The sounds of Christmas caroling echo across mountain villages. Shoppers swarmed the 200 stores and dozen or so restaurants of East Beirut's chic ABC Mall.  Tickets for movies at multiplexes are sold out. Lebanese Christians working or studying in Europe, North America and the Persian Gulf came streaming back to visit their families.

Mustapha, of the blog Beirut Spring, was incredulous at the volume of traffic he had to contend with while driving from the northern city of Tripoli to Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport.

I calculated that my trip will take the usual one hour and a half. I was wrong. I blame my nearly-missed flight (and the terrible prospect of having to wait a month for another available seat) on all the shopping going around; it took me an additional 30 minutes to cross the Dbayyeh highway facing the ABC Mall, and an additional 30 minutes in the 500 meters strip before City Mall. I’ve driven on this highway for ages, but I’ve never seen so many people. Where did they all come from?

— Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

Photo: A United Nations peacekeeper dressed as Santa Claus offers a gift to a Lebanese boy in the southern Lebanese village of Ebel al-Saqi on Saturday. Lebanese Christians are celebrating the birth of Christ under the shadow of the country's worst crisis since the 1975-90 civil war. Credit: Ali Dia/AFP/Getty Images