The Christmas Truce is one of the most fascinating events in modern warfare, perhaps because so little is known about it from official records. What we do know about it has been pieced together from soldiers’ letters home and some contemporary press articles. That it did take place is unarguable, even though many regiments at the time expunged the whole event from regimental records because they were ashamed of their troops for taking part. How it took place is more difficult to ascertain, but the book that serves as the basis for this article is Stanley Weintraub’s fascinating Silent Night which is definitely worth a read. In it, Weintraub traces the timeline from the initial overtures, that led to a series of truces across the front lines of the trenches, through to its eventual ending.
How did it start?
The truce was not one single event, but rather a series of unofficial arrangements that flew in the face of the wishes of the top ranks of both sides. Luckily for the troops, the highest ranks were, of course, very unlikely to inspect the trenches. They sat in comfortable billets and had fine dining to look forward to every day, whilst the troops were dirty, cold and lice-ridden with dead colleagues lying around them in rat infested trenches and in front of them in no-man’s land. It is hardly surprising that the donkeys wanted the lions to continue fighting, as they had no concept of the conditions. Equally, it is no surprise that the lions on both sides were open to a respite. In some areas the truces started before Christmas Eve, but this was very unusual. Interestingly, there is one detail common to every report, whether contained in letters home or, eventually, in the press when they could no longer ignore it. In every case, it was the German side that made the initial overtures to the Allies, perhaps because Christmas Eve to them was as sacred as Christmas Day, whereas to the Allies it was December 25 itself that was most important. Christmas Trees were put up on the top of the German trenches, and where no firing was forthcoming from the other side, carols were sung by the Germans and music hall songs by British troops, and requests for a ceasefire were shouted across no-man’s land. There was still an understandable suspicion on the part of the troops after months of bitter fighting, but it was an idea whose time had come. It has to be acknowledged that it was not a complete cessation of fighting, even on Christmas Day itself, but it was widespread enough to have a huge effect on both sides.
Christmas Day
The two sides met in no-man’s land in a large number of ceasefires with officers serving as the initial rangefinders. In some cases, the Germans knew English, or they had even lived in England before being called up by the German army. Once terms were agreed, and cigarettes, alcohol and other treats were swapped, the first task for many of the soldiers on that Christmas Morning was to bury the dead who remained above ground in the frosty wastes of no-man’s land. Often, the two sides assisted each other and, in at least one case, held a service for the dead that was presided over by a Padre or similar from each side. Some of the soldiers found out that their enemies came from the same areas as they did, and in at least one case a German who had been a barber in High Holborn in London gave haircuts to both sides, including one of his former customers! These meetings made one thing crystal clear to the troops. Their enemies were not the barbarians and brutes they had been told about, but people very much like them. It is hardly surprising that a few hours of fraternisation led to a wish for an even longer ceasefire. The enmity between both sides had largely disappeared and there was no way back for many of those involved.
Football
Perhaps the most argued about element of the Christmas Truce was whether there were football matches between the two sides. There is enough contemporary evidence to suggest that a form of football was played in a number of locations along the front line. How organised these games were, is of course open to question. However, where the two sides met on ground that was relatively clear, caps, tins and even footballs were used in free for all games between the two sides. They were generally played in good spirits, but they were unlikely to have been ‘organised’ in any real sense. As with so many elements of the Christmas Truce, we must rely on letters home from the participants for details. Captain Thomas Frost of the 1st Cheshire Regiment provides perhaps the earliest corroboration in a letter home to his father on December 31. Maybe the idea of the football matches has been romanticised, but there is little doubt that this romanticism has a basis in fact.
The End
In many places the ceasefire continued for a number of days as the two sides came to terms with the way that they had come together as human beings. It seemed somehow wrong to continue fighting, and in some places the two sides, when forced to fire by bloodthirsty senior officers, warned their opponents and deliberately fired to miss. Some regiments, especially those who were thought to have become too friendly, were replaced by soldiers who had not been involved in any truces and had the required level of propaganda inspired hatred for the enemy. The Germans who were involved were almost entirely from Bavarian units, but their replacements were often Prussians who were disliked by both sides for their brutality. Eventually, by a process of replacements, threats and courts martial the war started again. For me, the most shocking statistic is that if the truce had succeeded, and the two sides’ negotiators had been forced to sit around the table until a treaty was signed, 8.4 million men would not have lost their lives. It is a truly sobering thought.
A hundred years later
As it was a story that had always fascinated me, I came up with the idea of re-enacting the Christmas Truce matches at my daughter’s football club on Boxing Day 2014. After a bit of scepticism at the start, the enthusiasm for the project increased and we eventually ended up with nearly 70 players and a large number of spectators. I arranged games for different age groups from under-8 to adults and the goals were marked out with jumpers for a touch of authenticity. We arranged for special tops to be produced for the day and they were in two colours, red and white. (The only thing I forgot was to get a shirt for myself as I wasn’t actually playing! I wish I had.) Players didn’t know who their teammates were until the day, but within minutes they had that team spirit. I gave the players a quick introduction to the Christmas Truce and then they went out to play on a cold, bright Boxing Day morning. It was a very special morning that ended with a minute’s silence for those who lost their lives in World War I. The sacrifice of those young men who also loved their football brought the two distant generations together.
This list is designed to point you in the direction of some Christmas films you may not have come across. Some are on TV this year and if they are, then I will add the showing times. There are a couple of more recent ones and one that dates from 1947, so you’re bound to find something you enjoy. So, settle down with a hot chocolate and your choice of any of these films.
Falling for Christmas (2022)
Streaming on Netflix
This film is chiefly noteworthy for the return of one of the best young actresses of the late 90s/early 2000s, Lindsay Lohan. She plays Sierra Belmont, the spoilt heiress to a chain of hotels, who is used to having her every need met as she lazes around in her father’s hotel, waiting for her equally spoilt boyfriend, Tad Fairchild, an ‘influencer’ to whisk her off in his car. The film starts with Tad taking Sierra to the top of a mountain to propose to her. This goes disastrously wrong and leads to Sierra being knocked out and developing amnesia. She is rescued by the owner of a failing hotel, Jake Russell (played by Chord Overstreet) who agrees to look after her until she gets her memory back. Jake’s daughter, Avy, played by Olivia Perez, who bonds with Sarah, is a young actress who exhibits the same kind of winning personality that Lohan herself showed as a child star. Tad, meanwhile, finds himself bonding with a local ‘character’ who helps him to survive in the sub-zero conditions. It is a great way of spending an hour and a half where you don’t have to think, but as a bonus it is always engaging, often very funny and, I think, uniformly well-acted. Also look out for a great call back to Mean Girls that made me laugh out loud.
A Christmas Number One (2021)
Showing on Sky Cinema Christmas at 14:10 on December 24
I reviewed this film last year, and if you want to read my full review, then you can find it here However, it is simply a film whose soundtrack, mainly written by Guy Chambers, is crying out for a CD release. There are boyband pastiches that are absolutely hilarious, and a central song, Christmas Morning, co-written with Iwan Rheon who sings one of the versions, that is one of the best festive songs of the last decade. One of the plot strands tugs at the heartstrings in a way that few other Christmas films do. It is a marvellous way to spend two hours, and you can’t ask more of a film than that.
Lost at Christmas (2020)
Showing on BBC2 at 02:15 on December 25
First of all, please ignore the grossly unjust score of 5.0 on IMDB. It is way better than that. The plot revolves around a mismatched pair of travelling companions who find themselves stranded in the Highlands. They find a hotel which initially seems to lack any Christmas cheer at all, but unexpected things happen in the festive season. Yes, the plot may be a little predictable in places, but it has real heart with just a little bracing cynicism to offset the sweetness. However, it is the cast that makes this special. First off, you have Clare Grogan, famous for Gregory’s Girl and still touring with her band, Altered Images. Then, for Doctor Who fans, you have a three for one, covering nearly all of the series history. Sylvester McCoy (7th Doctor), Fraser Hines (Jamie) and Caitlin Blackwood (Amelia Pond) all appear in this film and provide a huge amount of fun. This hidden gem was one of my favourite films last Christmas and I can’t wait to see it again.
If You Believe (1999)
This is a Lifetime Television production starring Ally Walker and a very young Hayden Panettiere who many of you will recognise from the TV series Heroes, where she played Claire Bennett. Like many seasonal films it relies on a loose retelling of A Christmas Carol, in this case centred upon Susan Stone, a cynical book editor who fails to get any joy from anything in life including Christmas. After a bump on the head, she finds herself visited by Suzie (Panettiere), her carefree seven-year-old self who tries to encourage her to enjoy life once again as she used to. The film’s strength is the relationship between the two leads, which always feels believable and emotionally involving. I can’t find any showings on British Television this Christmas, but it is well worth tracking down one way or another.
The Bishop’s Wife (1947)
Available on Amazon Prime
I have recommended this film on various platforms at various times, and I make no apology for doing the same again. The Bishop’s Wife features two actors whose very presence lifts proceedings in even the weakest of films. In this case, they provide the icing on the Christmas cake for one of the best seasonal films of all. It is, in my own, perhaps controversial, opinion superior to It’s a Wonderful Life, which it outperformed at the box office on release. The two actors in question are David Niven, playing Bishop Henry Brougham, who prays for guidance to help with fund raising for a new cathedral, and Cary Grant, playing Dudley the angel who is sent in answer to that prayer. Soon, however, Henry regards Dudley as anything but the answer to his prayers as the two protagonists clash over the real path that Henry must tread. The stakes are raised when Julia Brougham, the title character beautifully played by Loretta Lynn, becomes the object of Dudley’s magical affections. Could Henry end up losing his wife in a very unfair fight? This is an absolute delight, and a film I return to year after year as the perfect comfort watch. It is definitely a divine comedy!
I hope you enjoyed this article and that you enjoy these films if you search any or all of them out.
Merry Christmas viewing!
I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round—apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that—as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
When I first scheduled this Blogmas entry, I was intending to make it a very light and silly piece, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that it would be quite insubstantial compared to my other entries, and largely unsatisfying to write. To be honest, the approach I decided to take only came to me this morning.
I want to state at the beginning that I am writing this article through curiosity, academic and personal, and I am not decrying other points of view, which I know are as genuinely held as my own. All shades of opinion should find themselves reflected here, or at least that is the intention.
When I say I love Christmas Jumpers, which I do, the reaction to this statement ranges from ‘So Do I’ to ‘I hate them’! It is a reflection of the widely divergent attitudes you find to all aspects of Christmas. No one that I know has ever said ‘I hate Shrove Tuesday’, although to be fair, I don’t like pancakes myself (!), or ‘I hate Easter Sunday’, so why is Christmas ‘hatred’ so widespread? I have put the word ‘hatred’ in inverted commas, because I genuinely think it is as much about hyperbole as ‘I really don’t enjoy Christmas’ doesn’t have the same impact. You hear it used about music, films, TV, presents, parties etc.
What fascinates me from a Popular Culture standpoint is the way that those who dislike Christmas appear to portray themselves as somehow reflecting a viewpoint that is superior to those who enjoy the festival. In that sense, dislike of Christmas seems to be placed on the same level as a love for fine arts, opera and ballet as the preserve of the more discerning elite. Elite culture has been placed in opposition to mass culture for centuries, and Christmas is merely the seasonal battleground that we seem to have decided upon.
Now, I fully accept that people can actively dislike the whole Christmas season, as indeed my own Dad did. He disliked the commercialism of a time of the year which had a message that he profoundly believed in. He felt that it cheapened the whole festival, although he would eventually get into the Christmas spirit around Christmas Eve, but I think he did that more for me than for himself. He took the Scrooge accusations in good part and as something of a badge of honour! (This perhaps goes back to the elite culture v mass culture element I referred to in the previous paragraph.) What he objected to was quite clear, as it is for many others. For many, Christmas is a sad time of year for many reasons. For others, the expectation that everyone will enjoy the season understandably gets backs up. Some people find that loneliness at Christmas is worse than at other times of year. We must always respect and acknowledge this.
Those of us who love Christmas can often be at fault by being overly demonstrative and making comments such as ‘Don’t be such a Scrooge’ unthinkingly, and without trying to understand the opposite point of view. Here, the binary approach that is taken to many things in life has become more obvious. We need to let people join in if they want to, and leave them alone if they don’t. ‘Encouragement’ sometimes becomes expectation and social pressure, so it is no surprise that people can react to this negatively. We need to avoid being like the title character in Elf (a film I really, really dislike by the way!) and being over-enthusiastic about all things Christmassy. We need to accept that there are bad Christmas films and bad Christmas music, just as those on the other side should acknowledge that there are good Christmas films and good Christmas music. Too often we can take an uncritical approach to every aspect of our favourite time of year. It is flawed in both principle and practice because we as human beings are flawed. Hearing Christmas songs in the shops in November may fill many of us with joy, but it also fills other people with annoyance. Yesterday, I wrote about the lower key and more concentrated build up to Christmas in the 1970s. Perhaps it would be best to return to that, although with modern technology that horse (or reindeer) has definitely bolted!
My Christmas ‘resolution’ is to find like-minded people who I can share my enthusiasm with and to live and let live when talking to people who find that enthusiasm baffling or even irritating. To all who read this, Christmas lovers or not, may I wish you all that you wish yourself at this or any other time of the year. I do love Christmas jumpers though!
I have been lucky enough to spend three Christmases in Australia with my family. One in 1998, and then 2003 & 2004 when I was studying at Wollongong University for a Masters Degree. These three Christmases left a lasting effect, not just on our memories, but on the way we celebrated Christmas itself when we returned to the UK. So, let me introduce you to the similarities and differences of a Christmas Down Under.
Pre-Christmas Events
Obviously, the fact that it is Summer in Australia makes a big difference to how Christmas is celebrated. A lot of events take place outside, and they take place in the evening once the heat of the sun has lessened somewhat. One of the signature events of the Christmas season is Channel 7’s Carols in the Domain, which has taken place in the Domain Gardens in Sydney almost every year since 1986. Given that it is hosted by Channel 7, there are always appearances for the cast of long running soap Home and Away. However, superstar entertainers The Wiggles, in their various incarnations, are probably the most enduring part of this tradition, having appeared every year, bar two, since 1993! I wrote about The Wiggles in my section on children’s music, and it was largely thanks to these three Christmases, going to their Christmas concert in Sydney and seeing them on Carols in the Domain, that they became an enduring part of the season for our family. The recording takes place before a live audience before being shown in the week before Christmas – December 23 this year (2022) if you are in Australia and wish to tune in. For its role in ‘starting’ Christmas, I would see it as the Australian equivalent of Carols from King’s.
The other pre-Christmas event we went to each year we were there was Carols by Candlelight near the beach at Cronulla in New South Wales. It was a genuinely magical event for the whole family which was made even more special for the children by staying up for a late night by their standards! Once again, it was an indispensable start to Christmas for us, and the chance to sing the old familiar carols in such an unfamiliar setting, in a very unfamiliar temperature (!) was fantastic.
Other than these two events, the basic ingredients of the build-up to an Australian Christmas were very similar to those of a British Christmas. Opening Advent calendars, buying presents, listening to Christmas music on the beach – well OK not the venue but you know what I mean! By Christmas Eve, the children were just as excited to see Santa Claus in Australia as they were in any year we spent in England. Me? I enjoyed it all the more, because I loved the opportunity we had to do so much more outside as a family in December.
Christmas Day
Well, Santa has obviously been, but with his sleigh pulled by distinctly Australian animals!
The stockings are emptied, breakfast is eaten and the first presents are opened. Time to cook lunch. It’s a bit hot for a roast though, isn’t it? For many Australians it is indeed! An Australian Christmas dinner consists of turkey crown – to save on cooking time in a very hot kitchen – coleslaw, potato salad and pasta salad. I got to love the relative lightness of the meal so much, that to this day I serve exactly the same accompaniments to the turkey, even though the weather is colder. To some, this may seem like sacrilege, but to me, it is a welcome respite from Christmas Day overeating, and it leaves room for Janet’s homemade Christmas Pudding, mince pies and Christmas Cake!
Once lunch is served, eaten and tidied away, it is time for a walk. For two of our three Australian Christmases, we went to the North of New South Wales to a place called Nelson Bay, which had a fantastic beach and miles of rolling sand dunes. Shorts and t-shirts were the order of the day as we walked on the beach to help our dinner go down. The end of the day involved films, music and games, much like it would in a British Christmas, but if you wanted to, there was the option of one last warm, moonlit walk, as long as you remembered to cot yourself in mozzie spray!
Boxing Day
This is the big beach day for residents of any state who are lucky enough to be within driving distance, or walking distance, of a stretch of sand. It is an incredible sight for the average Northern Hemisphere dweller as the beach is full of families as far as the eye can see. There is an atmosphere of joy very much in keeping with the season, but it takes place to the accompaniment of Test Match commentary from the MCG! It is also full of the smell of barbecues with food and drink from a dozen different cultures. It is perhaps the ultimate expression of the modern melting pot that is Australia with families of all faiths and none, observers of Christmas or not, alongside each other marking the day in their own ways. I hope to get back to the beach one Christmas to experience this unique atmosphere once more.
When I was planning my Blogmas entries, I thought this would be one of the easier entries to write. I mean, I lived through it, and it has been endlessly replayed in so many ways. ‘Aye, there’s the rub’ as Shakespeare once wrote. When you drift back in your memories, it isn’t always clear what is the individual memory of Christmas past, and which is the cultural memory that we are now familiar with? I wanted to make this entry as personal as possible, and to reflect what Christmas was actually like for those of us who were children at the time. As a result this entry is a fragmentary kaleidoscope of memories.
The build-up
As a youngster in the 70s, I do remember the build-up to Christmas, in the shops particularly, being a lot shorter than it is now. I suppose we would be eyeing up possible gifts from late October onwards, but the real build up didn’t get under way until after Bonfire Night fireworks had finished.
At school, the main focus was on the carol service, especially if the class you were in was presenting part of it. I remember that my primary school St Andrews went to a nearby church for our service, and it was a large church so the children chosen to read would need a strong voice to fill it. Our headmaster, who had somewhat idiosyncratic methods, decided that the way to discover if our voices carried was to shut the door to his study and position potential readers two flights of stairs below him! Apparently, he could hear me loud and clear over that distance and through a closed door (!) so I had the opportunity to read a lesson in the church during my final year at the school. The carol service was full of songs that we all knew, songs that we sang year after year. I am sure that my love for carols directly stems from those three years at St Andrews. As well as that, we made Christmas decorations, very inexpertly in my case, although I have strong memories of making a bell using a deodorant can lid covered in foil containing bells made from balls of foil around two pieces of wire topped off with a red bow. That decoration appeared on the Christmas tree for a few years, which I considered a success! We had a post box in the school hall in to which we posted our cards for our classmates and other pupils. Although I loved the feeling of a card being delivered by a postie – a prefect – I do remember certain pupils in the class getting way more cards than others. It certainly put you in a clear pecking order in terms of popularity! Finally, I remember the class parties with small sandwiches, crisps, jelly, games and party hats. They were always on the last afternoon and sent us off on our Christmas holidays in the right way.
Outside of school, our cub pack went to a local church for the Christingle service on one Sunday in Advent. The sight, smell and feeling of those services has never left me. There was something magical about a church lit only by candles, and something even more magical about just the children singing Away in a Manger. My final memory of carol singing is that a couple of years whilst I was at primary school, I went out with the cubs and we went carol singing door to door. We probably weren’t very good, but I remember the feeling of the cold on my face and the lift we got when a household gave us money for the cub pack charity.
The presents
Well, there is the first element of a child’s Christmas, the presents. A few gifts stand out. My kaleidoscope was one of my joys as a young child, and I could sit there for hours watching the shapes form, change, collapse and reform over and over again. I remember a few other presents, but chief amongst them was my cassette recorder and two tapes which I received on the Christmas I was nine years old. I have blogged about that particular Christmas in this article as it is one of the strongest memories of my entire childhood. As technology started to become more accessible I remember a couple of cutting edge gifts that I received. The first was Pong, the original computer game, and the second was a hand held Space Invaders console game. They were both incredibly primitive, but they were incredibly exciting to a child in the 70s. The final thing I remember about childhood Christmas presents are of course the stockings, which genuinely did have satsumas in the toes and much bigger and better selection boxes with full size chocolates and packs of Smarties, Jelly Tots and Tiger Tots. I really miss the latter!
Christmas Day
Now, bear in mind I was an only child, so I never really felt the same magic on the day itself that others might have felt. Once the presents had been opened, the day itself was similar to a Sunday for our family. My Dad often went to his local pub, which always had a lunchtime session on Christmas Day, and most years he invited friends of his who were going to be on their own otherwise. It was his quiet, very personal way of marking a day whose message meant a lot to him. Every Christmas lunch started off with Baxter’s Royal Game soup, so ever since it is the one soup that is associated with celebrations for me! We would always watch the Queen’s Speech of course, a tradition I still maintain with my own family. After that, it was all about the TV. In those days, of course, there were three channels, and BBC1 ruled supreme, so my memories are of those programmes. Morecambe and Wise were, of course, the undoubted kings of festive television, but actually it is Mike Yarwood who holds the 70s crown in terms of audience size. In 1977, his Christmas show had 21.4 million viewers, beating the Morecambe and Wise special by just under 100,000 viewers.
Thinking back to the 1970s, the Christmas was simpler and, probably, less oriented towards children, although as an only child that could well be just my own personal experience. It shaped my adult attitude to the festival and also shaped the type of Christmas I wanted to create for my family for a host of reasons. The one thing that has stayed the same is that sense of magic that lies at the heart of it.
David Pearce - Popular Culture and Personal Passions 