"The Christmas Truce of 1914 — When Enemies Put Down Their Guns and Played Football"

Added: 2026-04-28

[00:00:00]It started with a candle. German soldiers began placing small Christmas trees along the edges of their trenches.

[00:00:07]Tiny flames flickering in the darkness of no man's land. Then they started singing. British soldiers pressed against the opposite trench walls and listened. Then they sang back. By Christmas morning, men were climbing out of their trenches, walking into the open ground between them. They shook hands.

[00:00:27]They exchanged cigarettes, chocolate, and photographs of their children. They showed each other pictures of the families waiting for them at home. They buried each other's dead with full military honors for both sides. And then on the frozen, blood soaked mud of a Belgian field. They played football. By December 26th, the guns were firing again. The men who shared that Christmas morning would spend the next four years trying to end each other's lives. But on Christmas Day 1914, if ordinary soldiers could choose peace on their own, why couldn't the men who started the war do the same?