I started writing this on Christmas Eve but then I stopped because the contents of the tray next to me were proving to be too much of a temptation: milk and carrots for Rudolph, whisky and fresh strawberries for Santa (he’s on a diet, my daughter told me, “we cannot leave him cookies or he won’t fit through the chimneys”).

These are the little things I like about Christmas: Santa’s midnight snack, my daughter and her friends discussing Santa enthusiastically, the red and gold decorations which make our houses cosier (although not warmer), the smell of warm pudding and fruit cakes.

Most of all, I like the family traditions. In the Chetcuti household, every year, we put the Christmas tree up on December 8; we open presents on Christmas eve; Santa comes at nighttime and always drinks his whisky although he never eats much. It’s all about rituals and it’s amazing how the little details are different to each and every family.

Christmas is over now, so maybe this is not the time to talk about it, but this past week I’ve come across several people mumbling: “I hate Christmas this time of year” or “Christmas, bah humbug” or “Christmas? I am the Grinch” or “I used to be so excited when I was a child, now I’m lucky if I wake up at noon for Christmas lunch” or “My hangover is usually so terrible that I’d have no idea what’s going on”.

I particularly felt a twinge of sadness when, at my daughter’s school concert, children sang a song about shopping and how it’s one of the joys of Christmas.

It is very easy to turn into a Grinch: Christmas is like a season where jolliness is sort of forced upon us, and to boot, we have to really spend a lot of money to buy presents, which leaves us bankrupt for the rest of the winter season.

But the Christmas spirit is not about that, is it?

I believe that forgetting history will be mankind’s downfall

Letters from soldiers of World War I in 1914 – a century ago – have been recently unearthed and documents show that roughly 100,000 British and German troops were involved in the unofficial cessations of hostility along the Western Front at Christmas time.

The first truce started on Christmas Eve of 1914, when German troops took a break from shooting and decorated the area around their trenches with candles. The British responded by singing Christmas carols. On Christmas Day itself, one of the soldiers of the 18th Infantry Brigade stationed near Neuve Chapelle bravely lifted his head above the trenches and walked onto No Man’s Land calling out “Merry Christmas” in German.

The tension was palpable: was this a trick? Will he be sniped down? But the Germans in the trenches made it a point of showing the Allied soldiers that they were unarmed and had no intention of firing.

Soon soldiers from both sides were scrambling out of their trenches, shaking hands with the enemy soldiers on No Man’s Land. Soldiers exchanged small gifts, food, cigarettes, alcohol and souvenirs such as buttons and hats, and through Christmas night the artillery in the region fell silent.

Fresh accounts are emerging now of the football match “played between them and us in front of the trench”.

Sainsbury, the British food chain store, captured this moment for its Christmas advert this year: a re-enactment of the Christmas truce and the football game during World War I in 1914.

Sainsbury got a lot of flak for promoting its brand by plugging such a delicate moment in history, but I am all for it. I believe that forgetting history will be mankind’s downfall, so if it takes a chain store advert to remind us never to forget, then I’m all for it.

The Christmas truce of 1914 came only five months after the outbreak of the Great War in Europe and is often described as “one of the last examples of the notion of chivalry between enemies in warfare”.

It was never repeated: future attempts at holiday ceasefires in the three years that followed were quashed by officers’ threats of disciplinary action. But it served as heartening proof. However brief, that somehow, humanity endures and that the ugliness of war could not destroy the Christmas spirit.

And this spirit is there, year in, year out, whatever the shape of our imperfect life. Not all of us have a Barilla-style Christmas – in fact, I sometimes wonder if anyone does at all. Most times we have to deal with pain which is more acute at this time of the year: loneliness, separation, severe illness or death of loved ones.

And yet, we should never stop making an effort to mark Christmas – because capturing its spirit, in our heart of hearts, allows us to stop and reflect.

And this, to me, is what Christmas is all about: a moment in time, when we can hope.

krischetcuti@gmail.com
Twitter: @KrisChetcuti

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