When War and Christmas Collide

Robert Farley

Society,

'Peace on earth, good will toward men' simply hasn't been the case.

For decades, the story that German and British soldiers left their trenches on Christmas Day 1914 and played football in No Man’s Land has captivated readers. The idea that soldiers could find a basic, common humanity that their governments (and officers) had lost seemed to give a sense of hope in a century of unrelentingly grim warfare.

Over the last year, the famous “Christmas Truce” of 1914 has mostly generated debunkings and reappraisals; the “truce” was shorter lived and less consequential than many wished to believe at the time, or since. Still, we find the idea of the Christmas Truce appealing, because Christmas has become the central holiday of a religion that has, at its core, a deep pacifist appeal. The idea that Christian countries should set aside their disputes, at least for a day, is heartwarming, especially considering the horrors that soldiers suffered on the Western Front for the rest of the war.

Unfortunately, the notion that Christmas should serve as a moment of respite in war is often honored in the breach, even by Christian peoples. To be sure, it helps a bit that in the northern hemisphere, Christmas has historically corresponded with lulls in fighting, more because of bad weather than of the holiday itself. Commanders have often had good reason to take it easy and celebrate Christmas, if only because the conditions outside made military operations impossible.

It’s also only fair to note that the prominence of Christmas as a holiday is relatively recent. General George Washington famously made little allowance for the Christmas holiday when he crossed the Delaware in preparation for the Battle of Trenton in December 1776, although the Hessians were in a celebratory mood. But before Dickens, Christmas did not have its current resonance in the Anglo-American world, so we can perhaps excuse Washington’s audacity.