Christmas truce The Christmas truce was a series of widespread , unofficial ceasefires that took place along the Western Front around Christmas 1914 , during World War I . Through the week leading up to Christmas , parties of German and British soldiers began to exchange seasonal greetings and songs between their trenches ; on occasion , the tension was reduced to the point that individuals would walk across to talk to their opposite numbers bearing gifts . On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day , many soldiers from both sides – as well as , to a lesser degree , from French units – independently ventured into " no man ' s land " , where they mingled , exchanging food and souvenirs . As well as joint burial ceremonies , several meetings ended in carol - singing . Troops from both sides were also friendly enough to play games of football with one another . The truce is seen as a symbolic moment of peace and humanity amidst one of the most violent events of modern history . It was not ubiquitous ; in some regions of the front , fighting continued throughout the day , while in others , little more than an arrangement to recover bodies was made . The following year , a few units again arranged ceasefires with their opponents over Christmas , but the truces were not nearly as widespread as in 1914 ; this was , in part , due to strongly worded orders from the high commands of both sides prohibiting such fraternisation . In 1916 , after the unprecedentedly bloody battles of the Somme and Verdun , and the beginning of widespread poison gas use , soldiers on both sides increasingly viewed the other side as less than human , and no more Christmas truces were sought . In the early months of immobile trench warfare , the truces were not unique to the Christmas period , and reflected a growing mood of " live and let live " , where infantry units in close proximity to each other would stop overtly aggressive behaviour , and often engage in small - scale fraternisation , engaging in conversation or bartering for cigarettes . In some sectors , there would be occasional ceasefires to allow soldiers to go between the lines and recover wounded or dead comrades , while in others , there would be a tacit agreement not to shoot while men rested , exercised , or worked in full view of the enemy . The Christmas truces were particularly significant due to the number of men involved and the level of their participation – even in very peaceful sectors , dozens of men openly congregating in daylight was remarkable . Background . The first months of World War I had seen an initial German attack through Belgium into France , which had been repulsed outside Paris by French and British troops at the Battle of the Marne in early September 1914 . The Germans fell back to the Aisne valley , where they prepared defensive positions . In the subsequent Battle of the Aisne , the Allied forces were unable to push through the German line , and the fighting quickly degenerated into a stalemate ; neither side was willing to give ground , and both started to develop fortified systems of trenches . To the north , on the right of the German army , there had been no defined front line , and both sides quickly began to try to use this gap to outflank one another ; in the ensuing " Race to the Sea " , the two sides repeatedly clashed , each trying to push forward and threaten the end of the other ' s line . After several months of fighting , during which the British forces were withdrawn from the Aisne and sent north into Flanders , the northern flank had developed into a similar stalemate . By November , there was a continuous front line running from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier , occupied on both sides by armies in prepared defensive positions . The approach to Christmas . In the lead up to Christmas 1914 , there were several peace initiatives . The " Open Christmas Letter " was a public message for peace addressed " To the Women of Germany and Austria " , signed by a group of 101 British women suffragists at the end of 1914 as the first Christmas of World War I approached . Pope Benedict XV , on 7 December 1914 , had begged for an official truce between the warring governments . He asked " that the guns may fall silent at least upon the night the angels sang . " This attempt was officially rebuffed . Christmas 1914 . Though there was no official truce , roughly 100 , 000 British and German troops were involved in unofficial cessations of fighting along the length of the Western Front . The first truce started on Christmas Eve , 24 December 1914 , when German troops began decorating the area around their trenches in the region of Ypres , Belgium and particularly in Saint - Yvon ( called Saint - Yves , in Plugstreet / Ploegsteert - Comines - Warneton ) , where Capt . Bruce Bairnsfather described the Truce . The Germans began by placing candles on their trenches and on Christmas trees , then continued the celebration by singing Christmas carol s . The British responded by singing carols of their own . The two sides continued by shouting Christmas greetings to each other . Soon thereafter , there were excursions across No Man ' s Land , where small gifts were exchanged , such as food , tobacco and alcohol , and souvenirs such as buttons and hats . The artillery in the region fell silent . The truce also allowed a breathing spell where recently killed soldiers could be brought back behind their lines by burial parties . Joint services were held . The fraternisation carried risks ; some soldiers were shot by opposing forces . In many sectors , the truce lasted through Christmas night , but it continued until New Year ' s Day in others . Bruce Bairnsfather , who served throughout the war , wrote : " I wouldn ' t have missed that unique and weird Christmas Day for anything . . . . I spotted a German officer , some sort of lieutenant I should think , and being a bit of a collector , I intimated to him that I had taken a fancy to some of his buttons . . . . I brought out my wire clippers and , with a few deft snips , removed a couple of his buttons and put them in my pocket . I then gave him two of mine in exchange . . . . The last I saw was one of my machine gunners , who was a bit of an amateur hairdresser in civil life , cutting the unnaturally long hair of a docile Boche , who was patiently kneeling on the ground whilst the automatic clippers crept up the back of his neck . " Captain Sir Edward Hulse Bart reported how the first interpreter he met from the German lines was from Suffolk where he had left his girlfriend and a 3 . 5 hp motorcycle . Hulse Bart went on to describe a sing - song which " ended up with ' Auld lang syne ' which we all , English , Scots , Irish , Prussians , Wurttenbergers , etc , joined in . It was absolutely astounding , and if I had seen it on a cinematograph film I should have sworn that it was faked ! " Nor were the observations confined to the British . " Leutnant " Johannes Niemann : " grabbed my binoculars and looking cautiously over the parapet saw the incredible sight of our soldiers exchanging cigarettes , schnapps and chocolate with the enemy . " General Sir Horace Smith - Dorrien , commander of the British II Corps , issued orders forbidding friendly communication with the opposing German troops . Adolf Hitler , then a young corporal of the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry , was also an opponent of the truce . Later truces . In the following months , there were a few sporadic attempts at truces ; a German unit attempted to leave their trenches under a flag of truce on Easter Sunday 1915 , but were warned off by the British opposite them , and later in the year , in November , a Saxon unit briefly fraternised with a Liverpool battalion . In December 1915 , there were explicit orders by the Allied commanders to forestall any repeat of the previous Christmas truce . Individual units were encouraged to mount raids and harass the enemy line , whilst communicating with the enemy was discouraged by artillery barrage s along the front line throughout the day . The prohibition was not completely effective , however , and a small number of brief truces occurred . An eyewitness account of one truce , by Llewelyn Wyn Griffith , recorded that after a night of exchanging carols , dawn on Christmas Day saw a " rush of men from both sides . . . [ and ] a feverish exchange of souvenirs " before the men were quickly called back by their officers , with offers to hold a ceasefire for the day and to play a football match . It came to nothing , as the brigade commander threatened repercussions for the lack of discipline , and insisted on a resumption of firing in the afternoon . Another member of Griffith ' s battalion , Bertie Felstead , later recalled that one man had produced a football , resulting in " a free - for - all ; there could have been 50 on each side " , before they were ordered back . In an adjacent sector , a short truce to bury the dead between the lines led to official repercussions ; a company commander , Sir Iain Colquhoun of the Scots Guards , was court - martial led for defying standing orders to the contrary . Whilst he was found guilty and officially reprimanded , this punishment was quickly annulled by General Haig , and Colquhoun remained in his position ; the official leniency may perhaps have been because he was related to Herbert Asquith , the Prime Minister . In the later years of the war , in December 1916 and 1917 , German overtures to the British for truces were recorded without any success . In some French sectors , singing and an exchange of thrown gifts was occasionally recorded , though these may simply have reflected a seasonal extension of the live - and - let - live approach common in the trenches . Evidence of a Christmas 1916 truce , previously unknown to historians , has recently come to light . In a letter home , 23 - year - old Private Ronald MacKinnon told of a remarkable event that occurred on 25 December 1916 , when German and Canadian soldiers reached across the battle lines near Vimy Ridge to share Christmas greetings and trade presents . " Here we are again as the song says , " the young soldier wrote . " I had quite a good Christmas considering I was in the front line . Christmas eve was pretty stiff , sentry - go up to the hips in mud of course . . . . We had a truce on Christmas Day and our German friends were quite friendly . They came over to see us and we traded bully beef for cigars . " The passage ends with Pte . MacKinnon noting that , " Christmas was ' très bon ' , which means very good . " MacKinnon was killed shortly afterwards during the Battle of Vimy Ridge . In the following years of the war , artillery bombardments were ordered on Christmas Eve to try to ensure that there were no further lulls in the combat . Troops were also rotated through various sectors of the front to prevent them from becoming overly familiar with the enemy . Situations of deliberate dampening of hostilities still occurred . For example , artillery was fired at precise points , at precise times , to avoid enemy casualties by both sides . French - German truce . Richard Schirrmann , who was in a German regiment holding a position on the Bernhardstein , one of the mountains of the Vosges , wrote an account of events in December 1915 : " When the Christmas bells sounded in the villages of the Vosges behind the lines . . . something fantastically unmilitary occurred . German and French troops spontaneously made peace and ceased hostilities ; they visited each other through disused trench tunnels , and exchanged wine , cognac and cigarettes for Westphalian black bread , biscuits and ham . This suited them so well that they remained good friends even after Christmas was over . " He was separated from the French troops by a narrow No Man ' s Land and described the landscape as : " Strewn with shattered trees , the ground ploughed up by shellfire , a wilderness of earth , tree - roots and tattered uniforms . " Military discipline was soon restored , but Schirrmann pondered over the incident , and whether " thoughtful young people of all countries could be provided with suitable meeting places where they could get to know each other . " He went on to found the German Youth Hostel Association in 1919 . Public awareness . The events of the truce were not reported for a week , in an unofficial press embargo which was eventually broken by the " New York Times " on 31 December . The British papers quickly followed , printing numerous first - hand accounts from soldiers in the field , taken from letters home to their families , and editorials on " one of the greatest surprises of a surprising war " . By 8 January pictures had made their way to the press , and both the " Mirror " and " Sketch " printed front - page photographs of British and German troops mingling and singing between the lines . The tone of the reporting was strongly positive , with the " Times " endorsing the " lack of malice " felt by both sides and the " Mirror " regretting that the " absurdity and the tragedy " would begin again . Coverage in Germany was more muted , with some newspapers strongly criticising those who had taken part , and no pictures published . In France , meanwhile , the greater level of press censorship ensured that the only word that spread of the truce came from soldiers at the front or first - hand accounts told by wounded men in hospitals . The press was eventually forced to respond to the growing rumours by reprinting a government notice that fraternising with the enemy constituted treason , and in early January an official statement on the truce was published , claiming it had happened on restricted sectors of the " British " front , and amounted to little more than an exchange of songs which quickly degenerated into shooting . Legacy . Monument . A Christmas truce memorial was unveiled in Frelinghien , France , on 11 November 2008 . Also on that day , at the spot where , on Christmas Day 1914 , their regimental ancestors came out from their trenches to play football , men from the 1st Battalion , The Royal Welch Fusiliers played a football match with the German Battalion 371 . The Germans won 2 – 1 .