Reader 1 - This is an incredible story from The First World War which shows the true meaning of Christmas. Although soldiers from Britain and Germany were on different sides during the war they agreed to put down their weapons and celebrated Christmas Day together in No Man’s Land.

Reader 1 - This is an incredible story from The First World War which shows the true meaning of Christmas. Despite the fact that Britain and Germany were on different sides during the war, soldiers from both countries put down their weapons and celebrated Christmas Day together in No Man’s Land, the land between the trenches of both countries. Reader 2 - The First World War began on the 28th of July 1914. The major powers that fought were Britain, France and Russia against Germany, Austria-Hungary and The Ottoman Empire. Reader 3 - During the first 4 months of war there were enormous battles in France and Belgium on land known as the Western Front. There were more than 1.5 million casualties on the Western Front between August and November 1914. This is equal to around half of the population of Wales today.

Reader 4 - A truce is an agreement between enemies or opponents to stop fighting or arguing for a specified period of time. During the First World War, truces were organised to enable both sides to collect dead soldiers from no man’s land in order to bury them.   Reader 1 - With Christmas approaching, Pope Benedict XV suggested in November 1914 that the warring nations should organise a truce over the Christmas period. Russia and Germany dismissed his offer and continued to plan assaults for Christmas Day.

Reader 2 - [Students to act this scene] Christmas 1914 would be the first holiday that most of the soldiers would have spent away from family and friends. More than 2.5 million letters and 450,000 parcels were delivered to British soldiers on the front. Each British soldier received a Christmas card from King George V and Queen Mary with the message… ‘With our best wishes for Christmas 1914. May God protect you and bring you home safe’. Reader 3 - Princess Mary also sent a gift to each individual British soldier. It was a gold box containing tobacco and cigarettes for smokers and chocolates for the rest. This gift also came with a message which read… ‘With best wishes for a happy Christmas and a victorious New Year from The Princess Mary and friends at home’. Reader 4 - German soldiers received Christmas trees and placed them behind the lines and along their trenches. They also received gifts of spiced cakes, apples, nuts and alcohol.

Reader 1 - [Students to act this scene] On Christmas Eve, German soldiers on the Western Front lit lanterns and placed them along the top of their trenches. As night time came, they started to sing ‘Stille Nacht’, the original German version of Silent Night.   Reader 2 - British troops were unsure of what was happening at first. When the Germans had finished singing, the British soldiers applauded and started singing a carol themselves. The Germans responded with another carol, and the British and German soldiers sang carols one after another through the night. Not a single shot was fired that night.

[Students to act entire slide] Reader 3 - In sections of the Western Front on Christmas Day, a few German and British soldiers climbed out of their trenches, waving their arms in the air to show that they were unarmed. Other soldiers peered over the top of their trenches and retreated quickly, fearing that someone would shoot them.   Reader 4 - But nobody did. Some soldiers from both sides met in No Man’s Land, shook hands and signalled to the rest of their troops who followed them out of the trenches. Once the German and British soldiers had met in the middle they exchanged gifts. British soldiers gave cigarettes and chocolates while the Germans gave sausages and cognac. They even exchanged items such as badges, belt buckles and buttons. Reader 1 - The soldiers took photographs of each other and some swapped items of clothing while they were in No Man’s Land. In some cases they even gave each other haircuts. Both sides took advantage of the truce to repair and rebuild damaged trenches and to bury dead soldiers. The truce lasted for days on some parts of the Western Front.

Reader 2 - [Students to act this scene] Football matches were played between groups of British and German soldiers on parts of the front. One report says that British troops sent one of their messengers on a bike to get a football in order to have a game, with the final result being 4-1 to the British.   Reader 3 - Goals for this match were set up by using military caps as goalposts and the match only ended because the ball had struck a piece of barbed wire and deflated. In some of the games played on the Western Front the soldiers were not fortunate enough to have a football, so they used various items such as tins and sandbags filled with sawdust! Reader 4- Welsh soldiers were also a part of the Christmas truce. The two newspaper articles on this slide include letters sent from Welsh soldiers at the front to their families. The first letter describes the occasion as; “one of the most remarkable Christmases it is possible for anyone to spend”, while the second letter says; “The Germans came half way over and shook hands with our chaps, who met them. They then exchanged cigarettes and chocolates.” Reader 1 - There was no truce between the British and German troops on all parts of the Western front. 81 British soldiers were killed on Christmas Day in 1914 in areas where the fighting had continued.

Reader 2 - News of the truce reached high ranking officers of both the British and German armies quickly. Soldiers were ordered to stop fraternising with the enemy and return to their trenches. Officers were concerned that the truce would have an effect on the ability of the troops to fight.

Reader 3 - When war was declared many people believed that it would be over by Christmas. Fighting continued for almost 4 years after the Christmas Truce of 1914 until the war ended on the 11th of November 1918. Reader 4 - What is so remarkable about the truce on Christmas Day in 1914 is that it was not planned. There was no agreement between the British and German soldiers prior to that day. Reader 1 - That day, the British and German soldiers put aside their differences and came together to celebrate Christmas.