news 4 at 11:00 starts now. ♪ ♪ christmas eve in washington. right now, thousandsre

across our area. you are looking live at the basilica of the national shrine of the immaculate conception. good evening, i'm chris gordon, in for erika tonight. christmas eve services are under way right now around our area. news 4's justin finch is at st. matthew's cathedral in northwest washington. >> reporter: good evening. that mass is under way and to the national mall and cathedral, people say it's about their loved ones, their faith, and their traditions. with cardinal's blessing of the christmas mass at st. matthew cathedral began. the blessing of that display, marking the birth of jesus christ. still inspiring believers at the late-night christmas eve

thing is for me anyway, is open. >> reporter: a light fog fell on the national mall. those hazy red lights, not santa, nor rudolph, but only a washington site that brings the this family back every christmas. >> the monuments gorgeous, the capitol. >> it's decorated so beautifully, it puts you into the christmas spirit. >> reporter: to some, it's not just about the cascading red, white and blue lights or the village or the trains circling. >> for the last 25 years we've gathered the national christmas tree. >> we've come with our children now that they've grown up. now that they're married, they come back in town and we come to the tree every year. ♪ silent night >> reporter: with candles in hand, parishioners sang

eve." lifting voices and brightening hearts for centuries. and crowds will be gathering at the national mall tomorrow for the lighting of the national minority star, the celebration of hanukkah. i'm justin finch, back to you. >> well, christmas eve services are going on around our area right now, and you are looking live at the basilica of the national shrine of the imakula conception. the holiday is falling on a sunday this year and tomorrow the basilica will continue its annual tradition of sponsoring a dinner for those who are alone or in need on christmas day. volunteers will serve free meals in the dining room and deliver them to the elderly and disabled. the leader of the roman catholic church celebrated christmas eve mass in a packed st. peter's basilica in rome. pope francis urged christians to celebrate thei

suffering of children around the world. the pontiff escaped regret that some must escape bombs and how others are being prevented from being born at all. pope francis will deliver his noon blessing in st. peter's squa square. it's already christmas in bethlehem. tourists and pilgrims observing christmas in the traditional birth place of jesus. thousands gathering at manger's square, the festivities lifting spirits. and we invite you to celebrate christmas around the world without leaving washington. join barbara harrison for christmas on embassy road, when she visits the residents of russia, norway, panama and indonesia, that's tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. right here on nbc 4. president-elect donald trump

says he will dissolve his charitable foundation. he said he made the decision to avoid even the appearance of a possible conflict of interest once he's president. trump did not offer a timeline for when hoos foundation will shut down. the president-elect released a statement today saying the foundation contributed millions of dollars to countless worthy groups. well, the redskins went into the windy city and came out an early holiday winner with a christmas gift for fans. sherry burriss was in chicago for the big win. >> reporter: a commanding 41-21 win over the bears, keeps the redskins in the playoff picture. two "todatds from thompson got off to a fast start. >> every time he threw a pass, it was like who got this one? hopefully it will carry over. >> reporter: that's brashad breeland,

interceptions. guys? >> sherry, thank you very much. now if the kids are still up waiting for santa, time now to gather them around the television because coming up, a very special, dramatic reading of 'twas the night before christmas by our own pat collins. plus, a washington tradition, how santa spent

well, time has run out for all of you last-minute christmas shoppers. we checked out springfield town center today. many retailers offered deep discounts on christmas eve. we asked shoppers why they waited so long. and some said they were too busy. others said that's what they do every year. according to the national retail federation, one out of every eight shoppers planned to do their shopping after december 23rd. well, you haven't run out of time if you're shopping for hanukkah gifts. the jewish festival of lights started at sundown today. hanukkah lasts for eight nights. it will be officially celebrated mere in our area tomorrow evening when the giant menorah is lit tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. who says the grinch never has any fun? the grinch showing off water skiing skills on the potomac river today. and there's

this is the 31st eve for the christmas eve water skiing santa event. the crowd taking in all the festivities on the waterfront. they didn't let some overcast skies and a bit of rain keep them away. coming up next, a foggy night here in washington and across your area. when can you expect it to lift on christmas day? and we're tracking santa as he makes his final approach into the d.c. area. we'll have his latest location up next. your path to retirement may not always be clear. but at t. rowe price, we can help guide your retirement savings. so wherever your retirement journey takes you, we can help you reach your goals. call us or your advisor t. rowe price. invest with confidence.

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>> santa is busy delivering christmas gifts to homes around the world. here's a live look, montreal, heading toward ottawa. for the past 61 years, norad has tracked his christmas eve journey. we've created a link to north america's aerospace command center site. go to our app, open it up, and search, santa tracker. if by chance, they are still up, gather the children and the whole family together, it's time now for a very special reading of 'twas the night before christmas by our own pat

>> hey, you weren't expecting barbara harrison, were you? let's get on with this. ♪ >> 'twas the night before christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. the stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that st. nicholas soon would be there. the children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads. and ma in her kerchief and i in my cap had just settled down for a long winter's nap. when out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, i sprang from my bed to see what's the matter. away to the window i flew like a flash, threw open the shutters and rashed up the sash. the moon on the breath -- >> breath? >> -- breath. new fallen snow gave aus

objects below. and what to my wandering eyes should appear, but a miniature sleigh and eight tiny rein deer. i knew in a moment it must be st. nick. more rapid than eagles his courses they came, he whistled and shouted and called them by name. on dasher, on dancer, on prancer, on vixen, on comet, on cupid, on donner, and blitzen. and the other guy. to the top of the porch, to the top of the wall, now dash away, dash away, dash away all! as dry leaves, before the wild herd came fly, when they meed an obstacle mouth to the sky. to the rooftop three flue with a sleigh full of toys and

of each little hoof. as i drew in my head, down the shim nee st. nicholas came with a bound. he was dressed in fur from his head to his foot, his clothes were all covered in ashes and soot. he had a bag of toys flung over his back, he looked like a peddler opening his sack. his eyes had a twinkle, his dimples how merry, his cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry. and -- his little mouth was drawn up like a bow, the beard on his chin white as the snow. and -- >> the stump of a

>> a circle of smoke around his head like a wreath. he had a broad face and a little round belly that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly. he was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, and i laughed when i saw him in spite of myself. a wink of his eye, a twist of his head soon gave me to know, i had nothing to dread. he spoke not a word, but went straight to his work and filled the stockings and then he turned with a jerk and land his finger aside his nose and giving a nod, up the chimney he rose. he sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle and away they all flew like the down of a thistle. but i heard him exclaim, as they

drove out of sight, merry christmas to all. >> and to all a good night. >> pat is our consummate story-teller. >> that was worth the wait. thoroughly entertaining and the first way i've ever seen that done. >> he's from new york. so you've never seen that before? >> never. but i want to see more of him now. >> his snow stick is famous, but we're not going to need it for christmas. >> it's sitting in the weather center collecting dust. if you're looking for snow and a white christmas, the odds were only about 8%. and we don't have any odds of snow in our forecast here for today. we do have a lot of fog to talk about. that's what we have to contend with here during the overnight hours. so be very kifcareful if you'ret and about. this developed later this evening and it became thick and dense very quickly. so i'm concerned, if you're in central and southern areas of virginia during the overnight areas, just reduce your

give yourself a little extra time. you don't want to be in a hurry in this because the visibility is quite low. tomorrow will turn around to be a nice day. it starts murky, give it some time. temperatures near 50 degrees. if you think that's mild, wait until tuesday, you might be able to pull off short sleeves with temperatures in the 60s. it's 39 at national airport and temperatures basically stay steady through the overnight hours. look out for the dense fog. after about 7:00 a.m. through the lunch time hour tomorrow, the sun will burn off that fog and you'll see a rapid improvement in the visibility and all the weather conditions. visibility out there right now, not a problem north of the belt way. it's south of the belt way, that's where we have the thick fog right now. visibility is less than a mile. all the places in the shade of gray right now have dense fog advisories. you want to take it easy on the roadways if you have to drive tonight. if you can hold your travel off

morning, all the better. not much happening here other than the fog, but look out west. you want winter and a snowstorm, they have it across the dakotas. that will drag warm air with it. temperatures headed into the 60s. temperatures right now, 30s and 40s. for tomorrow, if you're headed out and about, hold them off until after 8 or 9:00 in the morning, maybe testing the toys, maybe the drone, dry conditions. or exercising, maybe you want to burn off some holiday calories. tomorrow afternoon should be a great day to do it. take a look at the day planner and we're looking at temperatures tomorrow afternoon peaking at 50 degrees. ten-day forecast. we have a lot of good weather to talk about for you, if you like mild weather. we're looking

on monday, 60s on tuesday. it looks like a few showers there tuesday and on thursday. but no snow in the forecast. >> thank you, steve. still to come, the redskins give themselves and their fans an early christmas gift with a win in chicago. but how does that help their chances of making the playoffs? we' find out next in lls

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for santa to come to town. but that was not the case for the washington redskins. it was just another day at the office. it was an opportunity for them to make the nice list for the nfl playoffs. well, back in 2010, deangelo hall picked off the bears four times in one game. well, that tradition in the true holiday spirit of giving today. current bears quarterback matt barkley tossed five interceptions, the most interceptions by the redskins in a game since 1992. the amazing defense, you know what, you still need to put points on the board to win. redskins got the job done. that's chris thompson getting the party started in the first. when kirk cousins executes a boos leg play to perfection in the second quarter, the redskins take full control of the game, jumping ahead 24-7. skins racked up 208 yards on the ground, their second largest output this season.

made the most of it. 88 yards this afternoon, 61 came on this touchdown, redskins racked up 478 yards total offense, the most the bears have allowed all season. for more on the big win, we go to chicago. >> you think scoring 40-plus points for a second time this stean would be cause for celebration, the offense, defense, and special teams all contributing in the 41-21 win over the bears. but the redskins still not officially in the playoffs, still not satisfied. >> we need to do the same thing next week. it's a must. we don't have no options. it's a must to do the same thing we did today. defense need to clean it up, but we gotta do the same thing next week. >> i think it was key for us on all three phases to put a game together. offense is rolling. we struggled a little bit on third down, but it was important to capitalize on the turnovers. to be plus five today was huge. >> it was great coverage at

up front, great pressure on the quarterback. we're firing on all cylinders, offense and defense. >> good feeling today getting the win and, you know, we know what's at stake now. we win the last game, we may be in. so we're excited for this week. >> just had a lot of guys going out there doing their jobs so we could make plays. me speaking, as well as for everybody in this locker room, we not ready to go home after next week. >> from here on out, it's just a one-game playoff and hopefully the right teams lose that need to lose and we handle our business against the giants and get a chance to hold up the lombardi trophy. >> showing us that no christmas wish is ever too big. all right, let's get a final check on our christmas weather. >> good weather here for tomorrow. some sunshine, temperatures are going to be in t

range, as then as we head through the rest of the week, we have a lot of ups and downs with the temperature, 60s by tuesday and then back into the 40s by the time we come up to the rest of next week. >> thank you, steve. that's our news, the christmas eve mass from st. peter's basilica in rome, that's up next. have a great night, everybody.

from the vatican in rome, christmas eve in st. peters basilica. this broadcast is presented in consolation with the united states conference of catholic bishops. the pastor of immaculate conception church in chicago. >> merry christmas from the vatican. i am father manuel, pastor of immaculate conception parish in chicago's south side and i am honored to join nbc to bring you tonight's celebration of christmas eve mass with pope francis. to