100 Stories > Christmas 1914

Christmas boxes were sent to those serving overseas. The contents varied but included cigarettes and tobacco. Christmas Day was also marked by a truce along part of the Western Front. It was witnessed by one local soldier, Private Pickering, who wrote: “we shook hands with the Germans and they gave us cigarettes and cigars. They wanted to play us at football but we had no ball. It made us think the war was over.”