Just five months into WWI in December 1914, unofficial truces and ceasefires were called by soldiers in the Western and Eastern fronts of the Great War. 

The first of these Christmas Truces was made a week before Christmas, during the stalemates of the First Battle of Ypres and Race to Sea, French and British soldiers met German men in no man’s land on the Western Front of WWI. During this first truce, soldiers sang carols, exchanged gifts, talked, and even played soccer with each other.

On the Eastern Front, Austro-Hungarian and Russian soldiers had a similar ceasefire. In some of these truces, the two sides would go recover bodies, have funerals for dead men, and exchange prisoners with each other.

During 1915, there were some short truces, not just during Christmas but also during the rest of the year. Sadly after the truces of 1914, unofficial ceasefires (not called by officials) were looked down upon by higher authorities and by 1916 you could be court-martialed for doing so.

Some commanders directly disobeyed orders from generals that threatened to punish them with death if they called a ceasefire with the enemy. This was because higher commanders didn’t want the enemy to be seen as human rather as a horrible evil that needed to be destroyed at all costs.

The Christmas Truce of 1914 was one of the only times in WWI when soldiers from seperate sides came together on neutral ground to fraternize, trade, and play games.