They even played a football match between the trenches. Christmas 1914 was the first Christmas of World War One. The British had been told that that the Germans fighting against them were blood lusting psychopaths. Propaganda like this widened the trench, as it were, between those fighting against each other in trenches. As a result, any sort of friendship or peace didn’t seem like an option.
But when Christmas came, things changed. Despite how much the government wanted to maintain the Germans’ “evil image,” it wasn’t enough to stop fraternization between both sides.
The Allies didn’t want the soldiers thinking the Germans were just like them, but in December there was a quick “truce” put together anyway. Between Christmas Eve and Christmas day, the officers on the Western front agreed to stop hostilities.
There was an impromptu cease-fire, much to the dismay of British High Command, who tried to say that a German attack was coming on Christmas Eve. For two days, Christmas carols were sung between trenches, the dead on both sides were buried together, gifts were exchanged, and there was even a football match that the Germans won 3-2.
When midnight on Christmas approached, all the men moved back to the trenches, and the war resumed on Boxing Day (December 26).
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