Have you heard of the Christmas Truce? On Christmas Day in 1914, in several places along the battle front, German and British soldiers in World War I, stopped fighting and met their enemies in the no man's land between trenches. There are many accounts of the day's festivities. Below is one such story, and I am providing a link to several more.
The German View of Events - including the Football Match
Leutnant Johannes Niemann, 133rd Royal Saxon Regiment
"We came up to take over the trenches on the front between Frelinghien and Houplines, where our Regiment and the Scottish Seaforth Highlanders were face to face. It was a cold, starry night and the Scots were a hundred or so metres in front of us in their trenches where, as we discovered, like us they were up to their knees in mud. My Company Commander and I, savouring the unaccustomed calm, sat with our orderlies round a Christmas tree we had put up in our dugout.
Suddenly, for no apparent reason, our enemies began to fire on our lines. Our soldiers had hung little Christmas trees covered with candles above the trenches and our enemies, seeing the lights, thought we were about to launch a surprise attack. But, by midnight it was calm once more.
Next morning the mist was slow to clear and suddenly my orderly threw himself into my dugout to say that both the German and Scottish soldiers had come out of their trenches and were fraternising along the front. I grabbed my binoculars and looking cautiously over the parapet saw the incredible sight of our soldiers exchanging cigarettes, schnapps and chocolate with the enemy. Later a Scottish soldier appeared with a football which seemed to come from nowhere and a few minutes later a real football match got underway. The Scots marked their goal mouth with their strange caps and we did the same with ours. It was far from easy to play on the frozen ground, but we continued, keeping rigorously to the rules, despite the fact that it only lasted an hour and that we had no referee. A great many of the passes went wide, but all the amateur footballers, although they must have been very tired, played with huge enthusiasm.
Us Germans really roared when a gust of wind revealed that the Scots wore no drawers under their kilts - and hooted and whistled every time they caught an impudent glimpse of one posterior belonging to one of "yesterday's enemies." But after an hour's play, when our Commanding Officer heard about it, he sent an order that we must put a stop to it. A little later we drifted back to our trenches and the fraternisation ended.
Singer and songwriter, Jimmy Buffet, was born on Christmas Day, 1946. My father in law, Tom, is a huge Buffet fan. Jimmy Buffet has had a major impact on a significant segment of the population, the Baby Boomers. It is not uncommon to see Parrot Heads, as fans are known, bring their kids, and even grandkids to shows. Parrot Heads are know as people who love life and like to have a good time, much of it down on the beach. The first track here is the Christmas song that best represents the Buffet and Parrot Head spirit, Christmas Island.
Christmas Island
