A Christmas Truce

When I was in the fourth grade, my teacher told us never to abbreviate Christmas as ‘Xmas’. Her reasoning was simple enough that even a group of ten-year olds could understand it. One of my classmates immediately pegged the problem with making that abbreviation as “taking Christ out of Christmas.” It took me several years to realize that she wasn’t really all that worried about our spelling and what we wrote on our Christmas cards. She was trying to teach us about a symptom of a larger problem. Christmas is, as everyone knows, a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ-or, so it is intended.

The sad truth is that it hasn’t been about celebrating Jesus Christ or anything else in a long time. Now, it’s about celebrating who has the brightest lights, who has the biggest tree, who has the most decorations, who got the best presents.

I always remember seeing this be exemplified when I came back to school after winter break.

Without fail, everyone would be showing off something they got for Christmas, whether it’s a

pair of shoes, new headphones, a better jacket, or anything else. Even if you weren’t a part of

that, you certainly had pictures or stories about what was under the tree and everything your

parents and grandparents gave you.

That’s what it’s become. It’s about stuff. Getting more and more things, when the fact is, many of us have a lot of things we’ll never use anyway. We’ve forgotten what the real meaning of the

holiday season is-not that most of us can be blamed, given our consumption-based society that drives us every second to purchase something new.

Don’t take this as an anti-Christmas message intended to make everyone feel guilty for giving or getting presents. That’s not my intention. I’m not a crabby, angry person determined to spoil

everyone else’s happiness. I just want us to remember why we’re doing what we’re doing.

Even if you’re not religious, Christmas is still about more than just possessions and material

things. It’s often referred to as the “season of giving.” And the giving doesn’t necessarily have to

be the giving of gifts in the form of a new tie or new watch or something else that you can hold in your hand.

Instead of giving objects, let’s give each other something we really need this holiday season.

Love.

Love for our neighbors, for our fellow students, for our parents and teachers, and for everyone

else, whether we like them or not. I know that probably sounds terribly cliched, but I think it’s something we need more than ever right now. If you don’t believe me, get on social media and take a glance at the boiling pit of filth known as the comments section. We have never been more divided, especially here in America.

I’m aware that there are some who will balk at the idea of showing love to their political

opposers. How, they will ask me, can those people be worth showing love to? At what point do

people not deserve to be shown love?

I’ll answer that question with a nice little historical reference.

If there are any history buffs in this audience, they will probably already be aware of the famous Christmas Truce during World War I. Those who aren’t history buffs may be surprised to learn that in December of 1914, British and German troops, in the grip of the first World War, arranged an impromptu ceasefire on the Western Front, pausing in order to play soccer, exchange gifts, and fraternize.1 Thousands of men, who had only hours earlier been doing everything possible to destroy one another, were able to come together to celebrate the Christmas holiday.

I ask you: if men who were quite literally trying to slaughter each other can manage to find a

brief commonality and love for one another, why can’t we? We Americans have a lot of

differences, but thus far, we haven’t resorted to bayonetting and bombing one another. If we can briefly resolve one of the biggest conflicts in human history for the sake of the Christmas spirit, surely we can solve political differences for the same cause.

If there is one change we can make, though, it’s that maybe we, unlike the combatants of World War I, can make it last. If we can reach across the aisle and show one another love during one month of the year, why can’t we do it every month?

Now, I’m not saying we’re not going to have disagreements, or even that we shouldn’t. Diversity

of thought is a strength, not a weakness.

But we have reached a point where we’ve become totally desensitized. We have way too many people out there who believe that their opinion is the only opinion, and that anyone who believes differently is a horrible person-a person who doesn’t deserve love or kindness or anything else-when the fact is, that a lot of us have more that unites us than divides us.

This holiday season, let’s show each other that. Let’s give the gift of love. Let’s call a Christmas

truce with people we disagree with, and let’s show what we can accomplish together.

Christmas is about bringing people together. Let’s do just that.

1) “Christmas Truce | Facts & History | Britannica.” Britannica.Com,

www.britannica.com/event/The-Christmas-Truce. Accessed 1 Dec. 2025