"Nutrition for the Soul": Choose Peace this Christmas

“Peace does not begin when wars end, but when we dare to see one another as human—even across the lines that divide us.”

On a frozen Christmas Eve in 1914, enemies laid down their weapons and stepped into the space between trenches. No speeches. No treaties. Just voices rising into the cold air, sharing carols, stories, and names. For one brief night, the war remembered what it had forgotten: that the men on both sides were human.

Christmas in the Trenches does not pretend the world is healed. The song is honest about how quickly the fighting resumed, how history kept moving toward more violence. And that honesty is what makes the moment so powerful. Peace, the song reminds us, is fragile—but real. It can exist even in the most unlikely places.

This story challenges our idea of Christmas as something soft and comfortable. Here, Christmas shows up muddy, tired, and trembling, yet brave enough to cross lines drawn by fear and politics. It suggests that peace is not a grand declaration, but a decision made face to face: to see the other not as an enemy, but as a fellow soul.

In a world still marked by division, Christmas in the Trenches asks a quiet question: What trenches exist in our own lives—between nations, communities, families, or hearts? And what would it cost us to step out, even briefly, to meet one another there?

Christmas in the Trenches

My name is Francis Tolliver. I come from Liverpool
Two years ago the war was waiting for me after school
To Belgium and to Flanders, to Germany to here
I fought for King and country I love dear
It was Christmas in the trenches where the frost so bitter hung
The frozen field of France were still, no Christmas song was sung
Our families back in England were toasting us that day
Their brave and glorious lads so far away
I was lyin' with my mess-mates on the cold and rocky ground
When across the lines of battle came a most peculiar sound
Says I "Now listen up me boys", each soldier strained to hear
As one young German voice sang out so clear
"He's singin' bloody well you know", my partner says to me
Soon one by one each German voice joined in in harmony
The cannons rested silent. The gas cloud rolled no more
As Christmas brought us respite from the war
As soon as they were finished a reverent pause was spent
'God rest ye merry, gentlemen' struck up some lads from Kent
The next they sang was 'Stille Nacht". "Tis 'Silent Night'" says I
And in two tongues one song filled up that sky
"There's someone commin' towards us" the front-line sentry cried
All sights were fixed on one lone figure trudging from their side
His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shone on that plain so bright
As he bravely strode, unarmed, into the night
Then one by one on either side walked into no-mans-land
With neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to hand
We shared some secret brandy and wished each other well
And in a flare-lit soccer game we gave 'em hell
We traded chocolates, cigarettes and photographs from home
These sons and fathers far away from families of their own
Young Sanders played his squeeze box and they had a violin
This curious and unlikely band of men
Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more
With sad farewells we each began to settle back to war
But the question haunted every heart that lived that wonderous night
"whose family have I fixed within my sights?"
It was Christmas in the trenches where the frost so bitter hung
The frozen fields of France were warmed as songs of peace were sung
For the walls they'd kept between us to exact the work of war
Had been crumbled and were gone for ever more
My name is Francis Tolliver. In Liverpool I dwell
Each Christmas come since World War One I've learned it's lessons well
That the ones who call the shots won't be among the dead and lame
And on each end of the rifle we're the same
-- John McCutcheon "Christmas in the trenches"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5on4WK1MpA

“The miracle of Christmas is not that peace once happened—but that it can still happen wherever we choose compassion over fear.”

1915 on Christmas Day : Celtic Thunder

On the western front the guns all died awayAnd lying in the mud on bags of sandWe heard a German sing from no man's land

He had tenor voice so pure and trueThe words were strange but every note we knewSoaring or the living dead and dammedThe German sang of peace from no man's land

They left their trenches and we left oursBeneath tin hats smiles bloomed like wild flowersWith photos, cigarettes, and pots of wineWe built a soldier's truce on the front line

Their singer was a lad of twenty oneWe begged another song before the dawnAnd sitting in the mud and blood and fearHe sang again the song all longed to hear

Silent night, no cannons roarA King is born of peace for evermoreAll's calm, all's brightAll brothers hand in handIn 19 and 15 in no man's land

And in the morning all the guns boomed in the rainAnd we killed them and they killed us againAt night they charged we fought them hand to handAnd I killed the boy that sang in no man's land

Silent night no cannons roarA King is born of peace for evermoreAll's calm, all's brightAll brothers hand in hand

And that young soldier singsAnd the song of peace still ringsThough the captains and all the kingsBuilt no man's landSleep in heavenly peace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxyw4GG2Iq4

Perhaps Christmas does not promise the end of all wars. Perhaps it offers something smaller, and more demanding: moments where we choose compassion over hatred, listening over shouting, humanity over ideology. These moments may not change history overnight—but they keep hope alive.

And sometimes, that is enough to begin.