Religion: A Pastor Ponders

The Christmas Truce

by Pastor William Jenkins

November 30, 2005

Alfred Anderson died on Monday, Nov. 21. He was the last surviving participant in one of the most remarkable Christmas events since the angels sang over Bethlehem’s fields.

It was a cold Christmas Eve in 1915 during WWI. Alfred Anderson was an 18 year old British soldier stationed along the Western Front. Germans on one side of the line, British and Scotch on the other, were in their trenches trying their best to keep warm against the bitter cold. There was a blanket of snow on the ground. In the sky the moon and stars were shining in the icy night. The great guns were roaring and rumbling up and down the line. Tracer shells leaped across the trenches. Even though Christmas was coming the war went on.

About the hour of midnight on this Christmas Eve, something incredible happened. Gradually the noise of the guns grew less; a few faint mutterings later the sound ceased altogether. A deep silence lay like the snow along the Western Front. The noise of battle gave place to an infinite peace. It was a mystical moment.

In the silence there came from the trenches the sound of voices singing, German voices. It grew in volume all up and down the line. It was an old song of Christmas, “Stille nacht! heilige nacht! Alles schlaft, einsam wacht…” Finally it died away. Then came the sound of English voices singing the same song, “Silent night, Holy night, All is calm, all is bright…”. The antiphonal singing was taken up again by the Germans. This time, “O, Little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie…” The Scotch and English boys sang it back to them.

Finally, some of the German boys became so excited that they burst out of their trenches. They came running across no-mans-land reaching out their hands in Christmas greeting. British and Scotch boys ran to meet them. For two or three hours they fraternized in no-mans-land. They were no longer soldiers, they were German boys from the Rhineland, Scottish boys from the glens and highlands, British boys from the cities and the green fields. “Let the war stop”, they said, “it is Christmas!” Eventually their officers called them back, the guns began to roar and the war resumed.

That event is known as “The Christmas Truce”. It demonstrated so well the power of Christmas and its message of peace. Alfred Anderson lived in that moment and kept it alive.

League City United Methodist Church is located at 1411 Main Street (FM 518), one block east of Interstate 45. For information, call the church offices at 281-332-1557 or visit the website at

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