Peace at Christmas

by Tom Campbell, Producer and Moderator of NC SPIN, December 27, 2018.

It was Christmas Eve 1914. World War I was in its early stages and trench warfare was the rule of the day. Soldiers on opposing sides could hear the bullets whistling overhead coming from trenches, often no more than 100 yards from theirs.

It had become clear that the war would not end quickly. Men on the front longed for loved ones and Christmases past and, as darkness settled in, a strange thing occurred. British lookouts reported seeing candles lit on small trees, and then the troops heard it – the unmistakable singing of the beloved Christmas Carol, Silent Night, in German. First one, then another solider climbed out of the trench to see for himself, moves reciprocated by the other side. Before long more voices joined in singing and more soldiers moved into “no man’s land,” the ground between the trenches, and began shaking hands, exchanging greetings, cigarettes and drinks.

In the midst of war, two sides declared peace with each other, a phenomenon reported widely across the Western Front. As many as 100,000 soldiers imposed their own Christmas peace treaty without orders - in fact, they had been forbidden to do so. There were reports of impromptu soccer matches, toasts, singing, sharing of uniform buttons and other memorabilia.  

This story is particularly instructive this holiday season. We, like those soldiers in the trenches, are war weary. The factionalism and ugliness we experienced all year was bad enough, but in the days leading to Christmas we were subjected to meltdowns and shutdowns, fault-finding and accusations. Bah humbug!

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our political leaders would call not just a truce but a permanent cessation of hostilities?

The real lesson of the Christmas truce of 1914 was that it was the soldiers who made it happen, not the commanders. The soldiers chose to put down their guns, to climb out of their trenches and meet their opposites half-way. And in the exchange of greetings and Christmas cheer they discovered those in the other trench weren’t really their enemies, they were actually people, just like them, people who wanted much the same things….family, security, respect and peace.

What would happen if you and I proclaimed we weren’t going to participate any more in today’s wars, that we were done with the ugliness, the pettiness, the tribalism, or any of the “isms” we experience? Maybe it’s my naivete, but I believe that if enough of us called a halt to the back and forth, the side choosing and the nastiness that our so-called leaders would notice. I say so-called leaders, because the truth is that they (and we) might think they are the leaders, but they are really just followers. The smart ones already know it, but don’t think you do.

Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollins, was a French politician, who knew this truth. In 1849 he wrote, “Have you seen them? Which way did they go? How fast were they going? How long ago? How many of them were there? I MUST find them…soon and without fail…for I am their leader.”

Hostilities ceased, if only for a brief time, because foot soldiers declared peace. As we contemplate resolutions for this coming year let us be as resolute as those soldiers in declare 2019 to be a year of peace.