December 25th 1914
9am Xmas morning a mist comes over and their men and ours are ordered to the trenches, about an hour after the mist suddenly lifts and we catch them putting barbed wire out and they catch us doing the same thing, but there is not a shot being fired here today we have another gathering of Germans and us, it was one mass about 150 of them and half as many of us all in a ring laughing, talking, we are trying to arrange a football match with them for tomorrow, boxing day, they say they are not going to fire again if we don’t, but of course we must, and shall do, but it doesn’t seem right to be killing each other at Xmas time…
…its Xmas night how different to the Xmas nights I remember especially the one 4 years ago when I stood under the mistletoe with the girl I married later.
Diary of Private W Tapp, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, November 1914- January 1915
Imperial war Museum Archives