The Chicago Tribune: Nestled off of a bustling shopping avenue in central Baghdad, Babylon Farms offers all the retail trappings of Christmas.
Baskets brim with glitter-dusted ornaments. A 4-foot Santa Claus doll towers over the cash register. Rows of decorated trees and plastic poinsettias line the shop.
The only thing missing? Customers.
"All the Christians have left the country," said Saif Sadi, the manager of the store, where sales this season are down 75 percent.
Christian leaders estimate that 50,000 of Iraq's nearly 800,000 Christians have fled the country since last year, mostly to Jordan and Syria.
And after a year of church bombings, death threats and assassinations, the Christians who remain have all but canceled Christmas.
