guess where he was born or when. captioning sponsored by cbs from cbs news world headquarters in new york, this is the "cbs evening news" with katie couric. >> axelrod: we begin tonight in rome, where pope benedict xvi celebrated christmas mass. in his traditional christmas day message, the pope spoke to catholics in china, urging them to have courage in the face of oppression. amid heightened security at the have the, the pope prayed for a just and peaceful coexistence in the middle east. in bethlehem, an estimated 100, 000 pilgrims made the journey to the birthplace of christ. officials say that's double the number that visited last year. security, as always also, was tight but the scene was calm and joyful. back in the u.s., there's a double-barreled blast of winter under way. one storm is making a mess in the south, and now a blizzard warning as a nor'easter is preparing to slam the east coast. the national weather service forecasts 11-16 inches possible from new jersey north. whiteout and blizzard conditions anwind gusts up to 55 miles per hour. for those trying to get home from their holiday visits, the dream of a white christmas might end up more of a nightmare. elaine quijano now with more. >> reporter: the punishing winter weather continues to leave its mark after a week that saw torrential flooding and mudslides in southern california and snowy conditions in most of the midwest. overnight, it also brought something rarely seen in parts of the south-- snow on christmas morning. in chattanooga, tennessee, where about three inches fell, residents relished the chance to play in the snow. >> i like it. we ain't had a lot of snow in, like, a long time. >> reporter: in huntsville, alabama, 3-7 inches fell, making it the city's first white christmas in 21 years. and as the storm system moves north, crews in greensboro, north carolina, are preparing to head out. there's trouble ahead from the mid-atlantic to massachusetts with forecasters predicting snowfall totals of more than a foot in some dwrairs. >> it will become heavy fast and we're going to see snowfall rates probably to the tune of around two to three inches per hour for several hours. >> reporter: the snow is threatening to disrupt holiday weekend travel plans up and down the east coast, including flights in and out of boston, new york, and atlanta. alalready delta airlines has canceled 500 flights scheduled today. >> reporter: probably the snow will be in washington, d.c. overnight, and in boston during the afternoon. >> reporter: another round of rough weather just in time for people traveling home for the holiday. elaine quijano, cbs news, new york. >> axelrod: president obama and the first lady delivered a joint christmas message today. michelle obama made an appeal for americans to support members of the military and their families. >> when our men and women in uniform answer the call to serve, their families serve, t too. and they're proud and glad to do it, but as long as that service keeps the rest of us safe, their sacrifice should also be our own. even heros can use a hand, especially during the holidays. >> axelrod: some american troops were able to enjoy a brief break from the rigors of battle on this christmas. at bases around the world, u.s. forces celebrated with a holiday meal as well as some prayers and carols. some troops even ran a marathon. mandy clark spent the day with task force bandit in kunar, afghanistan. >> haul louia. >> reporter: christmas mass from a visiting catholic priest. for colonel vincent it's a rare moment of reflection on christmas day. >> what's up, man? merry christmas. >> reporter: this 41-year-old officer is responsible for around 650 soldiers in task force bandit. today, he tried to visit as many as he could at the nearby outpost. >> i just see the guys on christmas because it's a tough time to be away from home, missing family and stuff. >> reporter: kunar province is one of the most dangerous places in eastern afghanistan. for the eight months that task force bandit has been here, it has seen roughly 30 wounded, but not one of its soldiers has been killed. >> it means someone is looking over our shoulderes. someone is watching out for us. >> reporter: some of the soldiers decide to play some football since they couldn't watch a game on tv. all that exercise helped build up an appetite, which is a good thing, because the military made sure the soldiers had a christmas feast. they've gone all out for the troops here with turkey and all the fixings. it's a taste of christmas far from home. >> it was delicious. >> cooking you expect on christmas back home. and kind of reminds you what you're fighting for. >> reporter: the army has holiday traditions so colonel vincent was behind the counter serving the men who have been serving him so well on the battlefield. >> my christmas wish is have all of my guys safe and we get them all home safe. >> reporter: it's a simple and sincere wish for christmas held by many here on the front line. mandy clark, cbs news, kunar, afghanistan. >> axelrod: in less than two weeks, the new 112th congress with the republican-controlled house of representatives will convene on capitol hill. and it certainly won't be looking to make life easy for president obama. joe brown reports. >> reporter: 5,000 miles from the white house, the president's enjoying a quiet hawaiian holiday. and hoping for some of the cooperative spirit back home that led to a string of legislative wins in the lame duck congress. >> we are not doomed to endless gridlock. >> reporter: but compromise may prove harder to come by in the new year. >> the biggest flashpoint between president obama and congressional republicans is going to be the budget. republicans say they want to cut a lot out of the budget. president obama is somewhat wary of that. >> reporter: the national debt, fast approaching $14 trillion, will force what's sure to be a partisan fight over budget cuts and spending priorities. for president obama, the only choice is to find common ground between his weakened democratic allies and newly empowered republicans. >> he may,ed in, forsake his own party to get some of these accomplishments going to the 2012 presidential campaign. >> reporter: for the g.o.p., 2011 will be about reversing some of the president's biggest victories of 2010. there's threats to choke off funding for health care and with the reform. a full-scale war on the white house agenda that analysts say will force the president to clearly define his message. >> the president hasn't really offered a very visionary look at where we're going as a country. >> reporter: he'll get his first chance to spell out that vision in his upcoming state of the union address, an official start to part two of the president's term as he slowly builds the case for his own reelection. there is early common ground. g.o.p. leaders in the house are loosening the rules next year and allowing members to use their blackberrys on the house floor. of course, president obama's been waring his blackberry full time since arriving at the white house. jim. >> axelrod: joe brown on capitol hill, thank you. coming up next on tonight's cbs evening news, in search of peace on earth with a former secretary of state. >> hello, this is sergeant gonzalez. god bless you and i send you a big kiss, mom. see you later, mom, bye. >> axelrod: a suicide attacker believed to be a woman threw grenades and detonated explosives today at a world food program aid center in pakistan. officials say at least 45 people were killed. with much of europe on heightened troor alert for the holidays, dutch police on christmas eve arrested 12 somalis in rotterdam and searched several homes and billions. officials said the somalis were plotting a terrorist attack in the netherlands. reports of threats result in mistrust around the globe. we sat down to talk about the state of peace on earth with veteran u.s. diplomat madeleine albright. >> i always say i'm an optimist who worries a lot. >> axelrod: the first-ever female secretary of state, a former united states ambassador to the united nations, madeleine albright thinks a lot about peace these days. >> what i believe is that there is a natural reason for people to get along if they think about the future and don't get completely stuck with the fights of the past. >> axelrod: fight she spent years trying to end. as secretary of state from 1997-2001, albright had to deal with wars in the balkans, the middle east, and was one of the first western diplomats to go to north korea and meet kim jungil. since leaving office, she's written a book outlining her belief that building an understanding of different religions is an important part of trying to end conflict. how does organized religion interface with this process of seeking peace? >> religion has and does play a part in a number of the issues where there is fighting. >> axelrod: albright has quite a personal perspective on different religions. born in what was once czechoslovakia, she was raised as a roman catholic who then became an episcopalian, then after she became secretary of state, she discovered she'd been born jewish. >> one of the people that i respect the most is archbishop tutuand he had an amazing statement about religion in his kind of homey way of saying it is that religion is like a knife that you can pick up and stick in somebody's back or use to cut bread. and so it's the cutting bread part that we have to get to. >> axelrod: explain to me, then, why the sticking the knife in the back prart seems to be winning in so many cases. >> i don't know whether it's really winning or whether it is-- >> axelrod: it certainly seems dominant. >> what has happened is the extremists are the onees that get the attention, that create the actes that are divisive to everybody else. wharf changes in terms of a different approach among the extremists of islam has to come from within the muslim religion. >> axelrod: but i think the skeptics would probably say good luck with that, right? >> none of this is easy. none of this has an immediate answer, and we all, as americans, like to have immediate answers. >> axelrod: after her career in government, albright founded two businesses and has spent time identifying broadly shared religious values to promote international understanding and peace. are you surprised at where we are now in terms of the hostility felt by many americans towards the muslim community? >> i'm unhappy about it. i really have to say. i mean, what's interesting is you saw it at different other times. i was in the carter administration during the iran hostage crisis, and there clearly was a rise of anti-islam at that point. and then people realized that it wasn't all muslimes that had this particular feeling. >> axelrod: one of the people albright has consulted with regularly over interfaith understanding is imammifiesal abdul ralf, the man at the center of the controversy over the plan to build an islamic center near ground zero in new york. what do you make of what happened with the so-called ground zero mosque? >> a lot of it is based on complete misunderstanding. imammifiesal is one of the most remarkable people they have met who has made it his life's work to get understanding. >> axelrod: how do so many not just rabid people on the extreme feel that they are other, that the muslims trying to, in this case, build this mosque-- or cultural center-- are other? how is that? how does that work in us? >> people have a tendency to seek solace in identifying with people that are exactly the same. , you know, kind of circling the wagons and saying, "i want to be with people that look just like me and believe just like me. when the opposite should happen. >> axelrod: what is the incentive for people to double down on respect? >> don't you think people feel better if they can walk down a street or be in a park and feel that they are safe rather thane looking over their shoulder all the time? i hate the fear factor thing. i really do. i think-- i wasn't born in the united states. i came here when i was 11 years old. from a europe that had been destroyed and was still suffering from the remnants of world war ii. and this, for us, was a golden country where people of a variety of religions and races and colors and different beliefs were able to operate together. and that's what makes this country so great. and we have to get back to that. >> axelrod: former secretary of state madeleine albright. up next on tonight's cbs evening news, an experiment in giving all year long. >> my name is specialist hargas and i'm from cincinnati, ohio, and i want to give a shout-out and say happy holidays i love you and miss you to my friend and family back home. >> axelrod: this time of year, you'll hear many stories about giving and sharing. but this one's different. it's the tale of a restaurant chain trying a new recipe for giving, not just during the holidays, but throughout the entire year. cynthia bowers has our story. >> thank you very much for being a part of us ( applause ). >> reporter: at panera bread company, the nation's best-performing restaurant chain. >> the breaking of bread with customers is an opening day tradition. >> some people cut a ribbon. we share bread. >> reporter: but what's happening at this dearborn, michigan, store is decidedly nontraditional. >> we made a decision to take this store and literally give the store to the community. >> to make sure everyone gets a meal, even if they can't afford one. >> reporter: panera cares, as it's called, doesn't list prices on its menu board. it suggests donations instead. >> you just leave more or less in the donation box. the "pay what you can" concept is founder ron shakes way of offering more than a simple handout to those in need. >> i'm only working part time right now. so on days that i can afford it, it will be great, and on days that i can't, i'll definitely take use of it. >> this isn't a soup kitchen. it isn't a homeless shelter. it's a cafe of shared responsibility. >> reporter: but for some customers, the new concept can be difficult to grasp. >> what difference does it make if i pay $3.70 or four bucks or 25 cents? >> reporter: in order for this experiment in human nature to work, customers able to play have to sometimes be willing to donate more than their fair share. >> that was the big risk. will the community step up and take on shared responsibility? >> reporter: this dearborn location is the company's second such store. the first, which opened seven months ago in st. louis, is doing better than skeptics predicted. >> financially, it is working. we're making enough money to become self-sustained. we're able to pay the labor, the food, the rent. >> reporter: in st. louis so far, 60% of customers are donating the suggested amount. 20% are donating more. 20% are donating less. shakes says a restaurant's location is key to staying afloat. >> we have to be in communities in which there are both people that can sustain it and people that can benefit from it. >> reporter: some companies do good to capitalize on the holidays or to clean up after a p.r. nightmare, but marketing experts say what panera is doing makes no business sense, which could be business genius. >> the best kind of p.r. is getting caught in the act of doing something good. and this is a classic case of that. >> it's easy to get behind feeding your neighbor. >> reporter: and it's that appetite for giving that panera is counting on to help them give back. cynthia bowers, cbs news, dearborn, michigan. >> axelrod: ahead on the cbs evening news, santa's journey. how he went from a little-known saint to holiday megastar. nicholas >> axelrod: you know where santa lives but do you know where he was born? anthony mason offers up a short history of saint nick. >> reporter: no matter where you're from. . >> santa claus is my hero. >> reporter: or what you believe? >> what's your name? >> mine? kris kringle. >> reporter: christmas means the main stage belongs to santa. >> yeah, sant i'll ask santa. >> reporter: the man in the ret suit hasn't always been a worldwide phenomenon. the story of santa claus actually begins in ancient turkey with the fourth century bishop nicholas. his legendary kindness to children elevated him to sainthood. over the centuries, saint nicholas gradually became a folk hero. later, he emerged in holland as sinters it klaus. in the newly formed united states, christmas was just another die in the 19th century. >> there was no uniform idea about what christmas should be. >> reporter: in 1810, a committee of town fathers in new york city decided to bring some european civility to their raucous port town. >> as early as 1810, they established the feast of saint nicholas as a special occasion. >> reporter: the wealthy professor, clementen clark moore, was on the committee. it was moore who inine 23 wrote a poem for his daughters cal calltwas" the night before christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stir, not even a mouse." >> reporter: the poem helped transform the stately saint nicholas into jolly old saint nick. finally, during the civil war, santa claus came to life in the magazine "harpary weekly." >> thomas nap came up with the first image any of us would recognize as santa claus. >> reporter: the german cartoonist drew dozens of images of santa claus giving him a home at the north pole and a workshop. as santa was embraced by children, he was also quickly embraced by advertisers. macy's included santa claus in its first thanksgiving parade in 1924. >> remember, be jolly. you're working for macy's. >> reporter: coca-cola also used santa in its early advertising. today, santa has become an international icon. bit ultimately. . >> he said ho-ho-ho. >> reporter: santa belongs to children. >> thank you. >> reporter: and to anyone who believes. anthony mason, cbs news, new york. >> axelrod: that's the cbs evening news. later on cbs, "48 hours mystery." russ mitchell will be here tomorrow night. i'm jim axelrod, cbs news in new yoyork. merry christmas and good night. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org,,,,,,