Can the spirit of Christmas survive even the worst of circumstances?

As you recall from your school days studies, a terrible war split the world in two in the summer of 1914. Then called “The Great War” or “The War to End All Wars”, we now recall it as World War I.

As December of that year rolled around, the Christmas sprit really didn’t stand a chance in the dark and filthy trenches of the battlefield. There were no sparkling decorations, no colourful lights or ringing bells, no heartwarming scents of pine needles and gingerbread. There were only crowds of filthy, exhausted men a world away from those they loved trying to survive in the unimaginably cold and muddy conditions of war.

No, they didn’t have a thing to be jolly about.

But someone, somewhere thought they deserved one.

Amazingly, in an act that defies understanding, sworn enemies who had spent the last several months going to every length to terrorize and destroy each other now mutually agreed to put down their weapons and forego their differences — and celebrate Christmas!

Who’s idea this was, how it started, and how such an extraordinary agreement could even have been reached are all questions that have many answers and no answers at all. In the century since that Christmas Eve, the story has been passed along through letters, diaries and oral accountings. As it was an unofficial truce and higher-ranking officers were attempting to bring it to an end, any official documentation is lacking.

More than that, the trenches were long and winding and it didn’t play out the same way in every sector. Stories differ, sometimes greatly, from one location to another.

Nevertheless, the accounts that have echoed through the years have some things in common. In many parts of the trenches, temporary truces were called. At first, the soldiers all curled up in their own trenches to celebrate Christmas with their own. Some reports are that they were nervous to come out in the open in case this was some kind of trick. But the trenches were so close that they could actually hear the guys from the other side talking and laughing. They could hear forks clattering against plates and smell food cooking in the other trench.

Then the singing began. First, one side sang a carol which was clearly heard and, evidently, enjoyed by the other side. They responded with a song of their own. The words were not necessarily understood when they were sung in a different language, but the age-old melodies were unmistakeable. They went on exchanging songs like this for a while until, finally, they were all singing together, “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” from the British allies and “Adeste Fideles from the German troops.

Eventually, they came right out of those horrible trenches and met and shook hands on the trip of earth between the trenches known as “No Man’s Land”. The rest of the day was spent visiting, joking, giving each other cigarettes and wine and even kicking a soccer ball around.

The Christmas spirt had clearly survived and thrived in one of the most unlikely places on Earth.

It’s true that it was only a short-term truce and only a few days later, the same men who had been spending Christmas together were, again, pointing guns and each other. It’s also true that three more years would go by before that war would finally end. And only twenty years before the next one would begin.

It’s even sadly true that, as Christmas 2022 draws near, the headlines are, again, full of reports of war, this time in the Ukraine. So, maybe we’ll never learn to settle our differences over a few Christmas carols and a game of soccer instead of in battle, but those long-ago soldiers gave us the gift of a tiny dollop of hope.

Every now and then, the impossible truly does happen.

The Story of the WWI Christmas Truce | History| Smithsonian Magazine