Red. anm.: Kjapt sidebytte siden opprinnelig lukehaver 1 Palmen sitt innlegg ikke har kommet kalenderbloggeren i hende. Lukehaver 2 Høst hadde sendt inn i god tid, og jeg har derfor tatt meg den frihet å servere dette som første innlegg, i stedet for å kjøre reprise på serviettbrettekurset mitt.
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Dette er en av de vakreste julehistoriene jeg vet om, og den vil jeg dele med dere.



Historien har vært brukt i reklame;


Og som utgangspunkt for sanger;



Riktignok var det ikke slik, som det sies i sangen, at våpenhvile hadde blitt erklært fra begge sider. Imperial War Museum forteller denne historien;

The Christmas Truce has become one of the most famous and mythologised events of the First World War. But what was the real story behind the truce? Why did it happen and did British and German soldiers really play football in no-man's land?

Late on Christmas Eve 1914, men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) heard German troops in the trenches opposite them singing carols and patriotic songs and saw lanterns and small fir trees along their trenches. Messages began to be shouted between the trenches.

The following day, British and German soldiers met in no man's land and exchanged gifts, took photographs and some played impromptu games of football. They also buried casualties and repaired trenches and dugouts. After Boxing Day, meetings in no man's land dwindled out.

The truce was not observed everywhere along the Western Front. Elsewhere the fighting continued and casualties did occur on Christmas Day. Some officers were unhappy at the truce and worried that it would undermine fighting spirit.

After 1914, the High Commands on both sides tried to prevent any truces on a similar scale happening again. Despite this, there were some isolated incidents of soldiers holding brief truces later in the war, and not only at Christmas.

In what was known as the 'Live and Let Live' system, in quiet sectors of the front line, brief pauses in the hostilities were sometimes tacitly agreed, allowing both sides to repair their trenches or gather their dead.

For noen år siden, fant jeg barneboken "The best Christmas present in the world."


En visuelt vakker bok, som forteller historien om en ung mann som kjøper et gammelt skrivebord. I forsøket på å restaurere dette, finner han en boks med ett brev inni. Brevet er skrevet av en soldat som beskriver hendelsene ved fronten, da våpnene ble erstattet med "Stille natt, hellige natt"....Den unge mannen må få levert brevet til den rette eieren før julekvelden.

Med ønske om en god og fredfylt jul - for alle, hvor man enn måtte være.