Pope Francis blessed thousands of baby Jesus figurines in St Peter's Square on Sunday during his weekly Angelus prayer and address.
The tiny baby dolls will sit in Nativity scenes in schools, homes, and other locations across the world during Christmas celebrations.
"And now, with affection, I greet the children who have come here for the blessing of the baby Jesus figurines," Francis said in Italian during his address.
"Dear children, I thank you for your presence, and I wish you a Merry Christmas!"
A giant statue of baby Jesus lay in a manger in St Peter's Square with the approximately 50,000 pilgrims.
Small prayer books were distributed to the crowd, and the Pope encouraged them to be "missionaries of joy" to survive difficult periods. "We've never heard of a sad saint," the pontiff quipped.
The 77-year-old, who celebrates a birthday on Wednesday, also asked the pilgrims to pray for him.
Francis shared a message of encouragement with persecuted Christians in Iraq and Syria earlier this month— recounting St Therese of Lisieux's comparison of herself and the Catholic Church to a sturdy reed being battered in a storm.
"You are, in this moment, this reed," the Pope said in a videotaped speech. "You bend with pain, but you have the strength to carry your faith forward.
"You are God's reeds today! The reeds which bend over in this ferocious wind, but then rise up!"
There have been Christians in Iraq for 2,000 years, and there were as many as 1.5 million Iraqi Christians before the United States invaded the country in 2003. Current estimates put the number of Christians living in the country at 200,000 but that number is dropping as thousands flee the wanton violence.
