# WWI Christmas Truce: Fact or Fiction? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 6, 2002, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwi-christmas-truce-fact-or-fiction/141028 "2002-12-06T21:44:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Thomas2500](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/898d66/32.png) [@Thomas2500](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thomas2500)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwi-christmas-truce-fact-or-fiction/141028/1 "2002-12-06T21:44:57Z")
Was their really an unofficial Christmas truce in 1914? I have read that the fighting stopped and German and Allied forces exchanged gifts, sang songs, and played soccer- but I’ve never found the story in a history book. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwi-christmas-truce-fact-or-fiction/141028/2 "2002-12-06T21:47:29Z")
Ah! Not only is it fact, there is a wonderul book out about it: [Silent Night, the Story of the World War I Christmas Truce](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0684872811/qid=1039211408/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-4523384-0303124?v=glance&s=books), by Stanley Weintraub. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwi-christmas-truce-fact-or-fiction/141028/3 "2002-12-06T21:57:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Thomas2500 \* > \*\*Was their really an unofficial Christmas truce in 1914? I have read that the fighting stopped and German and Allied forces exchanged gifts, sang songs, and played soccer- but I’ve never found the story in a history book. \*\* The PBS series _The Great War_ also described the event and if I recall correctly, even had some still pix of it. ---
**Author:** ![Ave\_Minerva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@Ave\_Minerva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ave_Minerva)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwi-christmas-truce-fact-or-fiction/141028/4 "2002-12-06T22:57:00Z")
Eye Deep in Hell by John Ellis has pictures of the Christmas truce. There were lot’s of little unofficial truces along various parts of the Western Front all during the war. For instance,the soldiers who had to go out into no man’s land and repair the wire tended towards a live and let live policy. They would hang a helmut on a gun driven into the mud when they were working on a section of wire. This was a sign to the other side that they were just working on the wire and would be soon be gone. Both sides would generally leave the other guys alone in that situation. I think the same conditions held for parties who went out to gather up the wounded and dead (at least the one’s who hadn’t sunk too deep into the mud to be found). ---
**Author:** ![Splanky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@Splanky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Splanky)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwi-christmas-truce-fact-or-fiction/141028/5 "2002-12-06T23:04:43Z")
Ah, the irony in war. ---
**Author:** ![stockton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwi-christmas-truce-fact-or-fiction/141028/6 "2002-12-06T23:05:32Z")
Here’s a site that offers several purported first-person contemporaneous recollections, including this little gem: "(1) Lieutenant Edward Hulse, battalion war diary (December, 1914) A scout named Murker went out and met a German Patrol and was given a glass of whisky and some cigars, and a message was sent back saying that if we didn’t fire at them they would not fire at us. " [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWchristmas.htm](http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWchristmas.htm) Kinda heartwarming, in a strange way…