Christmas celebrations begin; pope falls at St. Peter's

(CNN) -- A commotion at the start of Christmas Eve Mass at St. Peter's Basilica briefly disrupted ceremonies and caused the pope to fall, a Vatican spokesman said.

Pope Benedict XVI was helped to his feet by his aides and the service resumed, spokesman Federico Lombardi told CNN.

The disruption began when a person tried to touch the pope as he was walking down the main aisle of the church, he said.

The person was intercepted by Vatican guards before reaching the pope, Lombardi said.

Benedict began what has traditionally been a midnight Mass at the Vatican at 10 p.m. as officials sought to keep the 82-year-old pontiff from a late night.

Celebrants in Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus in the West Bank, however, joined the Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal for a midnight Mass attended by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian officials.

Outside the Church of the Nativity, erected over the site Christian tradition says was the place of Jesus' birth, the faithful gathered under the watchful eyes of heavily armed Palestinian police.

Gallery: Christmas Eve around the world

But Palestinian shopkeeper Nadia Hazboun said the security situation in the West Bank has improved in the time since the militant Hamas group took over Gaza and Abbas' Fatah movement abandoned the narrow strip of land between Israel and the Mediterranean for the West Bank.

"It was bad, now it is good," he told Voice of America radio. "I told you, before anybody take the law in his [own] hands. But now the law [is] with the police. We have security, we have calm, we have now the best situation in Bethlehem."

Christmas Eve in Bethlehem is a popular destination for American Christians, including Iowan Paul Edelman.

"Just the festivities, the idea that this is the birthplace of Christ, and you get to see all the historic places and share it with people from around the world; it's a very nice experience," he told Voice of America radio.