Wayward Advent Calendar: John McCutcheon, “Christmas In the Trenches”

There are two songs that get me all teary-eyed at Christmas. One is the Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York,” just because it’s so pretty and ugly and mean all at once. The other is this song, by John McCutcheon, “Christmas In the Trenches.”

The song is based on a true story, the 1914 Christmas Truce between British and German forces during the first World War. Basically, the forces met under a flag of truce, and exchanged goodwill, and there are even rumors of football matches. There’s an NPR story from 2004 that tells the details.

The song tells the story, and these lines just wreck me every time I hear them:

Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more

With sad farewells we each prepared to settle back to war

But the question haunted every heart that lived that wonderous night

“Whose family have I fixed within my sights?”