The original event and the ad both remind us that wars are not started by soldiers, who are usually just regular young men who'd otherwise be friends. That's one tragedy of war.
@NiallBradley-pg6ge it was far more than that, but yes, it definitely was a factor that led to ww1. The world was at eachothers throat for centuries for a variety of reasons be it nobility, religion and /or political, it was a powder keg about to blow.... but what triggered it was the failed and then succeeded assassination of Franz Ferdinand, that triggered nobility and WW1, but it's hardly fair to say it would have started if the none of the events across the globe had happened before hand, it would have just been a sad day and some sibling bickelry.
Here's a crazy fact. In under 3 years the Russian army has lost an estimated 800,000 men KIA. On average a Russian dies every 60 seconds due to Putin's constant meat wave attacks. That's worse then WW1 statistics because there was long spells on inactivity in WW1 with men sitting in trenches. For the record. there was 1 million British men lost in 4 years.
i worked in sainsburys in 2014, I remember we were all called into the meeting room before the advert was released, we got to watch it before it landed on tv, there was not a dry eye in the room. 😢
My grandad was German, he died 3 years ago and every Christmas we stand around my mums outside Christmas tree and sing stille nacht and sing it for him because he loved it so much :). My grandma died 6 months after him and my little boys convinced they've turned into robins so whenever he sees them flying he says hello to his oma and opa 😍 This makes me think of them so much now :)
My grandfather was German to. He was a WW2 POW when he met and fell in love with my grandmother in Wiltshire. I teared up to when I first saw this advert.
I remember listening to an archive recording of a British soldier from WW1, they could hear a German playing a cornet in the opposite trenches and used to give him a cheer, they used to respond by playing a harmonica and singing songs.
My grandmother was German also, she married a British soldier. In the modern era many Brits forget that Germans and Brits were essentially brothers in arms until the WW2. The conflict of WW1 pitted two friends against each other, two friends who shared so many similarities. Sad that many in our society won’t allow that friendship to repair. Wars are futile.
Gosh, ten years on and it still makes me cry. Yes this is a depiction of real events. They were just boys, cold and scared and far away from home. They just wanted a moments reprieve on Christmas day to be normal again. These events are a great reminder that there is so much more that unites us than devides us and that war is always a tragedy.
@Millennial_Manc really? I thought we were discussing this specific situation, British against German? I didn't realise I mentioned the Japanese anywhere in my comment? There's always one! 😡
I don’t know what you base “most of them were just boys, scared cold and hungry” on. In WW1 they both had a mutual agreement not to attack each other’s supply lines for food. Do you even know what started WW1? These cold hungry scared boys invaded Belgium, lined up citizens and executed them (including children), then burned their houses down. The Germans in WW1 were the first nation to use chemical warfare on a large scale, causing unimaginably horrific painful and slow deaths and life changing injuries. Save your tears for the Belgians. We were fighting monsters.
while the High command Lived like kings ,eating like kings ,drinking like kings ,Playing with these young men's Lives without a care in the world ,Making money on there sacrifice
ALL of what you saw, happened. Those higher up the command chain got wind of this and a strict order was issued for it not to happen again, or else they would be court marshalled and we all know what that meant. This advert is THE best advert ever, no Christmas advert has come close to it, even though there have been a few good ones. I tear up every time I see it, there have been a few reactions to it, with it having the same effect as it had on you. The Imperial War Museum has a video from 3 years ago, called 'The Christmas Truce, what really happened in the trenches in 1914'. That would be a good video to check out. I forgot to add, there is a video on how this advert was made, maybe check that out as well?
This always makes me cry. These are peoples sons, brothers and fathers. They didn’t want to be here. They suffered so terribly every day. They were doomed to die in this unfair war by higher ups. They celebrated life, peace and love for Christmas on this small stretch of the Front. I wish for them to sleep in heavenly peace.
I love the Blackadder take on the Christmas Truce. "Remember the football match?" "Remember it, how could I forget it?? I was NEVER offside, I could not *believe* that decision".
There is a statue of a British soldier and a German soldier shaking hands reliving this event outside a church in liverpool UK that was bombed in WW2 and was never repaired to be left as a monument
@@Kelvin-c9h Actually no. This event happenend and even the german Headquarter "Oberste Heeresleitung" mentionend it in its documents. A Football match or at least some more or less chaotic ball kicking is also mentionend several times, so this football match is more or less a fact, also the short "friendship" in the 1914 Christmas true was a thing. Of couse it was definitly not like in the ad here
My favourite Christmas advert ever. When I was 12 , in 1955, my dad was posted to Germany and we were there for 3 years. It was lovely there and we made made many German friends. It's always the same, governments declare wars but never go near it themselves! I cried again watching this beautiful advert.
The Christmas Truce | What really happened in the trenches in 1914? ruclips.net/video/NaBJhmkDKmc/видео.html "The Christmas Truce has become one of the most famous and mythologised events of the First World War. But what was the real story behind the truce? Why did it happen and did British and German soldiers really play football in no-man's land? Late on Christmas Eve 1914, men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) heard German troops in the trenches opposite them singing carols and patriotic songs and saw lanterns and small fir trees along their trenches. Messages began to be shouted between the trenches. The following day, British and German soldiers met in no man's land and exchanged gifts, took photographs and some played impromptu games of football. They also buried casualties and repaired trenches and dugouts. After Boxing Day, meetings in no man's land dwindled out. The truce was not observed everywhere along the Western Front. Elsewhere the fighting continued and casualties did occur on Christmas Day. Some officers were unhappy at the truce and worried that it would undermine fighting spirit. After 1914, the High Commands on both sides tried to prevent any truces on a similar scale happening again. Despite this, there were some isolated incidents of soldiers holding brief truces later in the war, and not only at Christmas. In what was known as the 'Live and Let Live' system, in quiet sectors of the front line, brief pauses in the hostilities were sometimes tacitly agreed, allowing both sides to repair their trenches or gather their dead." Source: Imperial war museum.
This advert was made in 2014 to help commemorate the 100th year anniversary of this horrendous time in history. You both shared the reaction of everyone that has seen this advert in the last 10 years. God bless you both x
My Grandfather's unit took part in the WW1 Christmas Truce. He received a small material bag that had Merry Christmas 1914 stitched into it and I have it today
Well it's your country's values. At if germany won Britain would be speaking German. The world was a political and religious power keg..... honestly nothing has really changed which is why we're just about in ww3. You didn't fight to kill, or for some PM, you fought to keep your country values alive. That's war..... there's always one person who has to light the fuse on a powder keg and ruin the peace. In ww1 it's the failed then reattempted and succeeded assassination of Franz Ferdinand
You could possibly argue that point if this advert had been about world war 2. Germany broke Belgiums neutrality which Britain had intended to defend. When Germany implemented the Von Shliffan plan to invade France by flanking the French through Belgium Britain declared war on Germany. There is probably very little chance Germany there was a plan to invade Great Britain. Britain had a sizable Navy which was still in control of the world's oceans. Although the British Army was by the standard of the day small it was highly professional the biggest advantage Great Britain had was the Empire. B@@The-Spanish-Inquisition490
@@The-Spanish-Inquisition490no, genuinely no. You’re mixing up WW1 and WW2. In the first conflict Britain and Germany were closely tied, we had a shared Royal family and shared values. The British are after all largely Germanic origin. The war genuinely pitted two close nations against one another due to the disastrous management by their governments and wider geopolitical issues. Germany were not seeking to invade Britain.
@@The-Spanish-Inquisition490 what nonsense. Rich men start wars to protect their earnings and territories and send poor men to die for them. The Germans in WWI were never going to occupy Europe or seek to invade the UK it was all about edge territories and resources. And as for "Britain would be speaking German" that's not really how conquest works. Germany still speaks German so far as I can tell, and if many of their citizens speak English that's more due to them not being fucking ignorant like Anglophones are.
@@mattstacyandthepomskies I'm sorry -what? "The British" are not largely Germanic! England may be, but the original Celtic races have left their DNA in their successors, plus the influx of Vikings of Norse origins which are also part of the three Celtic races. There really is no country in the UK and NI which is purely of Germanic stock! England had Angles and Saxons, but also Danes and others! "British" is only a geographical term for the large and smaller islands of the British Isles! Even the Romans classed the peoples they met with separate descriptive names , even though their sojourn in Scotland was curtailed! They still knew that there were several groups of people who were NOT Anglii!
My great great great Uncle Peter fought in WW1 in the Scots Guards, he was gassed. He never spoke of his time in the Boar War, WW1 and his time in WW11 in the merchant navy , I was honoured to have met him as an old man plus he left me his medals. He was a gentleman and a gentle man with a sense of humour. . The Uk has many heartstring pulling Christmas adverts so tears are inevitable. Lovely reaction , thank you both 🏴🏴🏴
I’m English but I’ve never seen this advert. There’s a book by Malcolm Brown and Shirley Seaton titled ‘Christmas Truce’. My grandfather, on my Dad’s side joined up in December 1915 aged 17 and survived the war. Happy Christmas to you and your families. 😁🏴
I knew Lindsay would cry , bless her , 10 years on and its still the best ever Xmas ad , even the mighty Steve was welling up lol , thanks for showing again 👍👍💪💪
We are all just people, who love, that have people who love us - Those men just wanted to go home ❤😢🙏much love for your reactions - love from Yorkshire and hope your Christmas is wonderful Xx
My great uncle died at the Somme in 1916 at 26 years old,he was my grandmother's big brother and she talked about him a lot. She died in 1986 aged 89. This ad always brings a tear to my eye! RIP Uncle Robbie. ❤️
My Great Uncle also died at the Somme in 2016. I guess like hundreds of thousands of others. His name was Francis. His brother also died in WW1 but in the RAF.
Lost two great uncles in WW1, Walter at Passchendaele and Fredederick at Arras. I also served for 12 years in The British Army (Northern Ireland, Iraq and Bosnia) WW1 was sheer carnage, God bless them all 🙏 " At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them!! "
Three wonderful men of my family were among the first sent over the top, in the First Battle of the First Day of the Battle of The Somme .. This made me cry .. Blessings and love to everyone .. from Ireland !!
because of this video, i got a recommendation by youtube for a video that explained the history of that event : "WW1 Christmas Truce: Stille Nacht - Extra History - # 1"
The best advert ever, it always makes me cry,I have worked in Sainsbury's for eighteen years, so I saw it before it actually first was shown on tv and knew immediately it was special. There is a version of the advert that shows you how it was made and a bit of the story behind it.
Seeing videos like this doesn’t make my cry for the loss so much but angry that it was started and ended by politics and, after two World Wars and almost 100 years, the people in this world still can’t seem to get along.
My grandad Ralph William Williams was in the British Amy from 1896 until 1919 he was in the Boer war south Africa, and took part in this football match in WW1. He died in November 1939 at the beginning of WW2.
Christmas day 1914 there was actually an unofficial truce and the English and German soldiers came together in no man's land, it was not universal across the Western Front, where my Grandfather was on the front it did happen.
@@timphillips9954 Thank you. As a Scot, I know my Grandfather was in the Royal Navy during WWI, and my Dad was a Normandy veteran whose younger brother was shot down, as a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm. It is very hurtful when so many Scots, Welsh and Irish soldiers, sailors and airmen are simply glossed over. A song which was generally disliked by those servicemen during WW2 was "There'll always be an England." Please do not forget the other three nationalities. They bled and died too.
My grandfather fought in WWI. He was born in 1888 and a professional soldier and was one of the ones who fought on the frontline in these very foxholes. I never met him as he died of the injuries he sustained fighting. This advert is a great tribute to those who endured the Great War and fell or otherwise. Thank you for your heartfelt and respectful reaction❤.
Its an ad beyond ads... 1914... Our history... My family history ... My Irish Grandad joined the Scots and fought along side them in the Black Watch... He was born in July 1894, so was just twenty that year.
According to my Great Grand Fathers war diaries. His older brother my Great Grand Uncle fought in the Black Watch in WW1. He is believed to have fallen at Battle of Pilckem Ridge 1917. His body was never recovered.
This always leaves me an emotional wreck. I remember my two grandfathers who served in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and The Duke of Cornwall's regiment in this great war. God rest their dear souls, and all the young men that suffered Hell.
My grandma’s two brothers were both killed in that terrible war, one of her brothers was Danny and the other was John, Danny died in the first week of the war in 1914, every time she heard the song Danny Boy she always cried. Imagine being in those trenches for months in the freezing cold and to having fight at the same time.
I remember this ad because Cadbury done special wrapping on chocolate bars especially for this with profits going to military charities for Christmas. They also had big banners at their factory in Birmingham where I live. I remember seeing them.
Yes it really happened. There was a Christmas Day truce during WW1. If you want to watch a beautiful British, tear-jerker film set during WW2, watch ‘Goodnight Mr Tom’. Children who lived in London had to leave and go to stay in the countryside during the Blitz and this one particular boy goes to stay with Mr Tom. Another good tear-jerker film is ‘Goodbye Mr Chips’ starring Martin Clunes. It’s about the life of a gentle and kindly schoolteacher at a public school and WW1 breaks out where many of his former pupils have to go and serve. Lyndsey would do enjoy them based on her reaction to this advert.
I second 'Goodbye Mr Chips' with Martin Clunes. I've also heard good things about 'Goodnight Mr Tom' as well. I will have to see about watching that one myself soon.
The main place these particular stories come from is Ploegsteert in Belgium (known as Plug Street to the British), as one of the soldiers wrote a famous diary about his experiences during the truce. But similar things happened down the entire line all the way to Switzerland, and possibly beyond, mostly between British and Germans troops. One German remarked to an Englishman "We are Saxon- you are Anglo-Saxon... we are brothers!". At Ploegsteert the front lines were only 20yds apart and the trenches only deep enough to crouch in, so hearing the other side singing carols was easy. They were also so narrow that you had to climb out of the trench to let another guy past (being that early in the war, no one had really "dug in" yet). Also worth noting that this was a whole YEAR before steel helmets were issued, so both sides were sitting targets for the other! The trenches were also flooded through Christmas as a result of the farming irrigation systems being destroyed, so part of the terms of the truce was that both sides had the opportunity to pump water out. At that spot in particular, the truce lasted until 1st January. My ancestor died the following day and is buried nearby, perhaps the first in his trench to lose his life after the truce. I know I've said it before but I will say it again... he died having been reminded of the better side of humanity, and I take comfort in that. People still leave footballs at Ploegsteert today.
The Christmas truce was started by German soldiers singing silent night and the followed by a shout of ‘you no shoot, we no shoot’ - the Imperial War Museum put out a good video on it a few years ago: ruclips.net/video/NaBJhmkDKmc/видео.htmlsi=KKjrDjr9TGuoq6dN
Even though I remember when this advert was released I still cried. I’ve just watched a video on the English Christmas of 1944 and it makes you realise just how blessed we are. We have so much to be grateful for and we need to be reminded of that from time to time. I guess you could figure this out but I am from England 🏴
You have to be a hard hearted soul not be be brought to tears by this poignant video. I’ve watched it every Christmas since it was released and I tear up everytime.
My father - who served in the army during WW2, and passed away in 1985 - use to work for a haulage company back in the early 60's. Purely by chance, he ended up working with a former German POW, who also drove for the same company. After a little while, it transpired the German guy had stayed in England after the war had ended, marrying an English girl. He had been an SS soldier during the war, and did not want to return to Germany for fear of retribution. My father said he turned out to be one of the most hard working and reliable workmates you could have wished for......
i balled when i first saw this advert and balled now watching it. knowing that they put their soldier hats off and became human for those minutes is such a beautiful thing to think about
You are so right Steve!! It was based on a true event,soldiers on both sides got out of their respective trenches and met up in no mans land and chatted ,until someone brought a football. Observers noted the soldiers playing football and immediately put a stop to it .Neither side claimed to have started the shelling ,but soldiers said they wouldn,t fire on each other in certain sectors . A very poinant advert!!
I've worked for Sainsburys since 2002, and I'm still so proud of this one! I remember watching this a few days before it aired on tv, and a few of us were a bit tearful at the end. I especially because I'd lost my Dad the year before and my Mum just a few weeks earlier.
My Maternal Grandfather survived the horrors of WW1. He served in The Irish Guards, but sadly I never got to meet him as he passed away before I was born.
I have worked for Sainsbury's for 38 years, that was the best advert we have ever done! The company was founded in 1869 so a bit of history there to explore.
Generals were worried that soldiers would see each other as people just like themselves, rather than the enemy.When the high command learned of the truce, they ordered soldiers to return to their trenches x
Yep both British & German soldiers played a game of football, and exchanged chocolate for cigs etc. brandy for whisky etc. couples hours later artillery geared up.
Such a powerful yet poignant true story, beautifully filmed. The horrific reality was that for the rest of the war, those young boys had to fight each other in appalling conditions in the trenches, enduring gas attacks which was unimaginable. The generals on both sides were dreadful, using these young men as cannon fodder. All British families have great grandparents who either died or suffered in the so-called ‘Great War’. In showing this you’re remembering these poor men, and the futility of war.
The troops where apparently singing carols in the trenches on Christmas Eve and each army heard each other then started to sing together. They then came out of the trenches on Christmas Day and exchanged gifts and played a game of football, had Christmas dinner and sang carols before the commanders ordered them back into the trenches.
This was filmed using a reanactment group who sadly split up their last job was the filming of three episodes of Dad’s Army that were lost a long time ago. The chocolate bar featured in this advert is Belgian 🇧🇪 chocolate it sold out in my local Sainsbury’s store where I was working at the time. I first saw the bar of chocolate after returning from a battlefield tour. The Christmas Truce which is re-enacted in this advert took place in 1914, I visited a location in Belgium where it took place the same re-enactment group I mentioned in first sentence earlier placed a wooden cross on the field in their memory. There is a cemetery on the opposite side of the road, three more cemeteries are in a nearby wood and one more on the opposite side of the wood. Nearby is a museum new at the time of my visit. Down the road are two cemeteries on opposite sides of the road also a memorial on one side of the road. I visited a museum in Ieper In Flanders Fields Museum, Hooge Crater Museum opposite is Hooge Crater Cemetery (there is a crater in the cemetery with the Cross of Sacrifice inside it) and Memorial Museum Passendaele 1917 in Zonnebeke (where the race I was in started and finished 13km/8.07 miles which went through the grounds, I was the only British runner two years on the trot this year the second time for The King, club and country). There is film out there of the making of the advert plus people involved in the advert from Sainsbury’s and The Royal British Legion whose emblem you see making an appearance at the end talking about it and the war. The Royal British Legion received money from this advert. Following The last Post played on bugles The Exhortation by L. Binyon is read before wreath laying the following is said They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old age shall not weary them nor the years condemn at the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them WE WILL REMEMBER THEM. Sometimes this follows but not every ceremony The Kohima Epitaph When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today (this is not said the end of every Last Post Ceremony at The Menin Gate in Ieper Belgium 🇧🇪).Reveille is played and The Last Post ceremony comes to an end. My visit to The Menin Gate Memorial Last month I was the first wreath layer for the first time in all the years I have visited my first visit was in 2005 I didn’t lay a wreath until 2008in memory of my local regiment The 10th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment The Grimsby Chums the only Pals battalion called Chums.
I remember the very first time I saw this, I was cooking dinner with the TV on in the background, and I just stopped what I was doing and stood there with tears pouring down my face. It was especially poignant for me at the time in 2014 as my two boys were 23 and 20, which was a similar age to most of the soldiers depicted in the advert. It still makes me cry every time I see it.
Just google WWI Christmas football match and you'll find loads of articles, it happened and in more than one place. When I started my first job in 1980 I worked alongside a wonderful old German bloke who had settled in my hometown after WWII, he'd been conscripted into the German army as a teenager and was captured by the British army. As we did with a lot of POWs who we didn't consider a threat he worked on the farms and mingled with the locals, that's how he met his wife to be, they married and stayed here. The big Christmas song that year was called Stop The Cavalry by Jona Lewie, the song and accompanying video is based on WWI and features a German Oompah band, my old German friend used to walk up and down the warehouse making the Oompah band noises Gert Frobe style ( Gert and his beatbox sounds are on YT, they'll crack you up ). Every time I hear that song I raise a glass to my old mate Martin Fischer, RIP old buddy.
I have never forgotten that add! It was a sobering one frankly! What for me is interesting is that my name is Belgian! but my Belgian grandfather was wounded in WWI and sent to England to a hospital and decided to live in England! If we had not had WWI my dad and eventually me too would not have been born in the UK! So! There is another aspect of that World War!! My Belgian Grandfather had one experience in his Belgian Trenches! It was this! A colleague of his light a lighter to light his cigarette that he had passed to my Grandfather! Just as my grandfather turned his head! He felt a built go through one of his ear lobos! He pretended to be dead and turning his head at the right time saved his life!!
I was in secondary (high school) when this advert came out and our school had a military cadet force (both air force and army sections). Our school organised a game for charity (Royal British Legion) where we played a game of football on the very muddy rugby pitch in our full combat gear, boots and all. Whilst it was fun at the time, it was also important to remember the event of the Christmas Day truce and some of the poignant points about war in general that you pointed out. Have a merry Christmas ❤️
"With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, England mourns for her dead across the sea. Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit, Fallen in the cause of the free." for the fallen.
As others have said, the truces really did happen - not everywhere (the front line was hundreds of miles long, remember), but there's documented proof that it happened. References to at least one football match are in at least one regimental war diary, and letters home sent by people who were there. Importantly for this advert - the packaging of the chocolate bar in the ad was a replica of a 1914 bar of Sainsbury's chocolate. And the bars were sold in Sainsbury's, with the proceeds going to the British Legion (veterans charity).
It is the greatest advert in UK history and not only is it loved so much but it shows one of the true events that happened only once in WW1 but never happened again ever. Where I come from in England our county had two Regiments of men, one of the Battalions was involved in the Christmas Truce of 1914. I also know that the famous Football match between British Troops and German Troops, well the ball was provided by a British Soldier in the London Irish Regiment and the actual ball is still around today, and is in the London Irish Regiments museum at their Barracks in London. The Rugby club that I am a fan of is The London Irish Rugby Union Club and the Club has very strong ties with the London Irish Regiment which is still a Regiment that is part of the British Army today. The Christmas Truce of 1914 means a lot to us British and our German friends as our troops from our nations were the only countries involved in the Christmas Truce. There was a cross planted on the battlefield where the Christmas Truce started, over 120,000 soldiers from both British and German sides were involved in this incredible act of humanity and Christmas spirit. As a British patriot and someone who has grown up very interested in military history especially my country's, this actuall event is my favourite. There are many incredible true events that have happened that are awe inspiring. My favourite metal band who are called Sabaton who come from Sweden, made an incredible Christmas song about this event and other true military events in history and also about absolutely brave heroes in times of war. You should check out Sabaton and Christmas Truce also there video. 💂♂️💂♂️🇬🇧🇬🇧🏴🏴🇮🇪🇮🇪
@Parker_Douglas Actually 110,000 Irish Men joined the British Armed Forces during WW1, and in WW2 100,000 Irish Men joined the British Armed Forces in WW2, I should know as two of my cousins from Dublin in the Republic of Ireland joined the British Army and they were in the Royal Military Police during WW2. You should look up facts before you make statements that are completely wrong and disgusting. Those Irish Men who joined the British Armed Forces in WW1 and in WW2 have been recognised and honoured by the government of the UK and the Republic of Ireland. 💂♂️💂♂️🇬🇧🇬🇧🏴🏴🇮🇪🇮🇪😡😡🤬🤬
Crying now, even after seeing this more times rhan I can remember! Thank you for the heartfelt and beautiful reaction guys, to one , if not the best Christmas advert ever. Much love and happy Christmas to you and yours ❤️
The occasion was called the Christmas Truce of 1914. It occurred during World War I when German and British soldiers along the Western Front temporarily ceased hostilities on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. During this unofficial truce, soldiers emerged from their trenches, exchanged greetings and gifts, sang carols, and in some places, reportedly played informal games of football (soccer). The event is remembered as a rare moment of humanity and camaraderie amidst the horrors of war.
If they ever played this advert back to back with the finale of Blackadder Goes Forth it would take me hours to compose myself. We are capable of making wonderful film when we want to, as a country.
My grandfather was a young soldier in that war, he was in the Durham light infantry, enlisted at 17 because he lied about his age, and my great uncle Fred fought too, he never came home
There is an animated film about this called War Game (2002). My brother worked on it as an animator. It's definitely worth a watch. They showed it in my daughter's school and she told the teacher that her uncle animated it and the teacher told her off for lying. I went into school and corrected the teacher, my daughter just looked up at him and said "told you".
Lindsay you held out longer than me. It has me crying 😢 everytime. Imo it's the best advert we have done in the UK. What those boys went through, the living in the trenches were horrendous.
Extra Credits has a video about it I would recommend, also the heavy metal band known as Sabaton has a song about the Christmas Truce. To my knowledge the Christmas Truce was a series of armistices and ceasefires held throughout Christmas on 1914, particularly through British and German Troops, the French were less inclined, as Germany had invaded them. The troops as seen had heard the Germans singing the original Austrian or German (I’m unsure) version of Silent Night as you see, a British line heard and took up a challenge, originally attempting to drown the Germans out with their own carols, but it turned to harmony. I’m no where near a historian so take that with a grain of salt, a lot of my knowledge came from Extra Credits video and a few bits I got online. A German officer even gave a British Officer a Victoria Cross, (which btw is the British version of the Medal of Honor) and a few letters from a British soldier that died in a German trench, and the British Officer gave him a scarf, which was a gift to him from home.
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
The original event and the ad both remind us that wars are not started by soldiers, who are usually just regular young men who'd otherwise be friends. That's one tragedy of war.
Agreed. The people of Germany also suffered. ❤ 🇩🇪🇬🇧
Ordinary people put in an impossible position by lunatics in power.
WW1 was just a falling out between European nobility.
@NiallBradley-pg6ge it was far more than that, but yes, it definitely was a factor that led to ww1.
The world was at eachothers throat for centuries for a variety of reasons be it nobility, religion and /or political, it was a powder keg about to blow.... but what triggered it was the failed and then succeeded assassination of Franz Ferdinand, that triggered nobility and WW1, but it's hardly fair to say it would have started if the none of the events across the globe had happened before hand, it would have just been a sad day and some sibling bickelry.
Here's a crazy fact. In under 3 years the Russian army has lost an estimated 800,000 men KIA. On average a Russian dies every 60 seconds due to Putin's constant meat wave attacks. That's worse then WW1 statistics because there was long spells on inactivity in WW1 with men sitting in trenches. For the record. there was 1 million British men lost in 4 years.
My maths and Latin teacher, Mr Edwards, took part in this game. He was in his 70's when he told us this story in 1967.
Oh my goodness, how amazing is that
Wow! That is incredible
Thank you so much for sharing.
Early Merry Christmas from Germany 🌟
everybody did, teams must have been massive.
@@robertgieseler1220 Frohe Weihnachten
i worked in sainsburys in 2014, I remember we were all called into the meeting room before the advert was released, we got to watch it before it landed on tv, there was not a dry eye in the room. 😢
Absolutely stunning....and beautifully moving advert. Not surprised at the staff reaction to this!
I would imagine not!
I remember this too!
Were ya all made outta mush or something?
My grandad was German, he died 3 years ago and every Christmas we stand around my mums outside Christmas tree and sing stille nacht and sing it for him because he loved it so much :).
My grandma died 6 months after him and my little boys convinced they've turned into robins so whenever he sees them flying he says hello to his oma and opa 😍
This makes me think of them so much now :)
My grandfather was German to. He was a WW2 POW when he met and fell in love with my grandmother in Wiltshire.
I teared up to when I first saw this advert.
I remember listening to an archive recording of a British soldier from WW1, they could hear a German playing a cornet in the opposite trenches and used to give him a cheer, they used to respond by playing a harmonica and singing songs.
🙏❤
Thanks that was beautiful to here
Love from great Britain
My grandmother was German also, she married a British soldier. In the modern era many Brits forget that Germans and Brits were essentially brothers in arms until the WW2. The conflict of WW1 pitted two friends against each other, two friends who shared so many similarities. Sad that many in our society won’t allow that friendship to repair. Wars are futile.
Gosh, ten years on and it still makes me cry. Yes this is a depiction of real events. They were just boys, cold and scared and far away from home. They just wanted a moments reprieve on Christmas day to be normal again.
These events are a great reminder that there is so much more that unites us than devides us and that war is always a tragedy.
So true ❤️
This always brings me to tears, most of them were just boys away from home for the first time, scared, cold and often hungry.
@Millennial_Manc really? I thought we were discussing this specific situation, British against German? I didn't realise I mentioned the Japanese anywhere in my comment?
There's always one! 😡
I don’t know what you base “most of them were just boys, scared cold and hungry” on. In WW1 they both had a mutual agreement not to attack each other’s supply lines for food.
Do you even know what started WW1? These cold hungry scared boys invaded Belgium, lined up citizens and executed them (including children), then burned their houses down. The Germans in WW1 were the first nation to use chemical warfare on a large scale, causing unimaginably horrific painful and slow deaths and life changing injuries.
Save your tears for the Belgians. We were fighting monsters.
while the High command Lived like kings ,eating like kings ,drinking like kings ,Playing with these young men's Lives without a care in the world ,Making money on there sacrifice
@@paintitblackblack9910 Read a book called: Mud, Blood and Poppycock. Itll give you a new perspective.
What’s even sadder is the soldiers were told when they joined that the war would be over by Christmas. So sad.
ALL of what you saw, happened. Those higher up the command chain got wind of this and a strict order was issued for it not to happen again, or else they would be court marshalled and we all know what that meant.
This advert is THE best advert ever, no Christmas advert has come close to it, even though there have been a few good ones.
I tear up every time I see it, there have been a few reactions to it, with it having the same effect as it had on you.
The Imperial War Museum has a video from 3 years ago, called 'The Christmas Truce, what really happened in the trenches in 1914'. That would be a good video to check out.
I forgot to add, there is a video on how this advert was made, maybe check that out as well?
Thank you for the info ❤️
@@reactingtomyrootsit's total bollocks... this Hollywood noncence never happened,...both armies on both sides confirm it !
God bless them all LEST WE FORGET ❤️🙏
100% Agreed.
LEST WE FORGET!!!!
This always makes me cry. These are peoples sons, brothers and fathers. They didn’t want to be here. They suffered so terribly every day. They were doomed to die in this unfair war by higher ups. They celebrated life, peace and love for Christmas on this small stretch of the Front. I wish for them to sleep in heavenly peace.
But stuff like this don't happen. You don't exist.
I love the Blackadder take on the Christmas Truce. "Remember the football match?" "Remember it, how could I forget it?? I was NEVER offside, I could not *believe* that decision".
There is a statue of a British soldier and a German soldier shaking hands reliving this event outside a church in liverpool UK that was bombed in WW2 and was never repaired to be left as a monument
St Luke’s.
It's not representing this fake event... football match, both parties said this never happened.... it's a nice story though .
@@Kelvin-c9h an improntue match took place Germans won 2- 1 Google it
@@Kelvin-c9h
Actually no.
This event happenend and even the german Headquarter "Oberste Heeresleitung" mentionend it in its documents. A Football match or at least some more or less chaotic ball kicking is also mentionend several times, so this football match is more or less a fact, also the short "friendship" in the 1914 Christmas true was a thing.
Of couse it was definitly not like in the ad here
My favourite Christmas advert ever. When I was 12 , in 1955, my dad was posted to Germany and we were there for 3 years. It was lovely there and we made made many German friends. It's always the same, governments declare wars but never go near it themselves! I cried again watching this beautiful advert.
The Christmas Truce | What really happened in the trenches in 1914?
ruclips.net/video/NaBJhmkDKmc/видео.html
"The Christmas Truce has become one of the most famous and mythologised events of the First World War. But what was the real story behind the truce? Why did it happen and did British and German soldiers really play football in no-man's land?
Late on Christmas Eve 1914, men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) heard German troops in the trenches opposite them singing carols and patriotic songs and saw lanterns and small fir trees along their trenches. Messages began to be shouted between the trenches.
The following day, British and German soldiers met in no man's land and exchanged gifts, took photographs and some played impromptu games of football. They also buried casualties and repaired trenches and dugouts. After Boxing Day, meetings in no man's land dwindled out.
The truce was not observed everywhere along the Western Front. Elsewhere the fighting continued and casualties did occur on Christmas Day. Some officers were unhappy at the truce and worried that it would undermine fighting spirit.
After 1914, the High Commands on both sides tried to prevent any truces on a similar scale happening again. Despite this, there were some isolated incidents of soldiers holding brief truces later in the war, and not only at Christmas.
In what was known as the 'Live and Let Live' system, in quiet sectors of the front line, brief pauses in the hostilities were sometimes tacitly agreed, allowing both sides to repair their trenches or gather their dead."
Source: Imperial war museum.
Great video. Thanks for sharing
Thank you!
Cadbury printed special edition based on wrappers from 1914 with proceeds going to charity
It never fails to make me cry. My Grandad fought in World War1. God Bless all those young men for their loyal services. We all bleed red.🙏🙏🙏😔
My Grandad fought too, he was a German POW for 2 years.
@ They all went through unimaginable traumas that we will not or could not ever comprehend with. I wish you a Happy Christmas and New Year. 😊
This advert was made in 2014 to help commemorate the 100th year anniversary of this horrendous time in history. You both shared the reaction of everyone that has seen this advert in the last 10 years. God bless you both x
Such a beautiful advert. It was for the 100th anniversary of this story happening.
war is just such a waste.
Great reaction.
We love Sains, not just for the ad but they have decent food and support British suppliers.. Thank you both. We all bleed red xx
My Grandfather's unit took part in the WW1 Christmas Truce. He received a small material bag that had Merry Christmas 1914 stitched into it and I have it today
My goodness how you must treasure that little bag a physical yet bittersweet link to such a momentous moment in time! 😢❤
The thing is this: It was never 'their' differences to start with.
You are very right
1000%
Or, to be democratic and to give everyone their vote... %46,000,000 on the UK's side alone
The thing is, these men didn't really have any differences. The people forcing them to fight did.
Well it's your country's values.
At if germany won Britain would be speaking German. The world was a political and religious power keg..... honestly nothing has really changed which is why we're just about in ww3.
You didn't fight to kill, or for some PM, you fought to keep your country values alive.
That's war..... there's always one person who has to light the fuse on a powder keg and ruin the peace.
In ww1 it's the failed then reattempted and succeeded assassination of Franz Ferdinand
You could possibly argue that point if this advert had been about world war 2.
Germany broke Belgiums neutrality which Britain had intended to defend.
When Germany implemented the Von Shliffan plan to invade France by flanking the French through Belgium Britain declared war on Germany.
There is probably very little chance Germany there was a plan to invade Great Britain.
Britain had a sizable Navy which was still in control of the world's oceans.
Although the British Army was by the standard of the day small it was highly professional the biggest advantage Great Britain had was the Empire.
B@@The-Spanish-Inquisition490
@@The-Spanish-Inquisition490no, genuinely no. You’re mixing up WW1 and WW2. In the first conflict Britain and Germany were closely tied, we had a shared Royal family and shared values. The British are after all largely Germanic origin. The war genuinely pitted two close nations against one another due to the disastrous management by their governments and wider geopolitical issues. Germany were not seeking to invade Britain.
@@The-Spanish-Inquisition490 what nonsense. Rich men start wars to protect their earnings and territories and send poor men to die for them. The Germans in WWI were never going to occupy Europe or seek to invade the UK it was all about edge territories and resources. And as for "Britain would be speaking German" that's not really how conquest works. Germany still speaks German so far as I can tell, and if many of their citizens speak English that's more due to them not being fucking ignorant like Anglophones are.
@@mattstacyandthepomskies I'm sorry -what? "The British" are not largely Germanic! England may be, but the original Celtic races have left their DNA in their successors, plus the influx of Vikings of Norse origins which are also part of the three Celtic races. There really is no country in the UK and NI which is purely of Germanic stock! England had Angles and Saxons, but also Danes and others! "British" is only a geographical term for the large and smaller islands of the British Isles! Even the Romans classed the peoples they met with separate descriptive names , even though their sojourn in Scotland was curtailed! They still knew that there were several groups of people who were NOT Anglii!
My great great great Uncle Peter fought in WW1 in the Scots Guards, he was gassed. He never spoke of his time in the Boar War, WW1 and his time in WW11 in the merchant navy , I was honoured to have met him as an old man plus he left me his medals. He was a gentleman and a gentle man with a sense of humour. . The Uk has many heartstring pulling Christmas adverts so tears are inevitable. Lovely reaction , thank you both 🏴🏴🏴
I’m English but I’ve never seen this advert. There’s a book by Malcolm Brown and Shirley Seaton titled ‘Christmas Truce’. My grandfather, on my Dad’s side joined up in December 1915 aged 17 and survived the war. Happy Christmas to you and your families. 😁🏴
Lyndsey: is this gonna make me cry?
Me: already crying... Yup!😢
I knew Lindsay would cry , bless her , 10 years on and its still the best ever Xmas ad , even the mighty Steve was welling up lol , thanks for showing again 👍👍💪💪
We are all just people, who love, that have people who love us - Those men just wanted to go home ❤😢🙏much love for your reactions - love from Yorkshire and hope your Christmas is wonderful Xx
I don't care what anybody says, nobody makes adverts like the UK. They can make you cry, laugh or reflect on life, sometimes in the same advert.!!
One of the best ads ever in my opinion! ......Lest we forget
My great uncle died at the Somme in 1916 at 26 years old,he was my grandmother's big brother and she talked about him a lot.
She died in 1986 aged 89.
This ad always brings a tear to my eye!
RIP Uncle Robbie.
❤️
My Great Grandad died at the Somme too 💜
My Great Uncle also died at the Somme in 2016. I guess like hundreds of thousands of others. His name was Francis. His brother also died in WW1 but in the RAF.
Lost two great uncles in WW1, Walter at Passchendaele and Fredederick at Arras.
I also served for 12 years in The British Army
(Northern Ireland, Iraq and Bosnia)
WW1 was sheer carnage, God bless them all 🙏
" At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them!! "
Three wonderful men of my family were among the first sent over the top, in the First Battle of the First Day of the Battle of The Somme .. This made me cry .. Blessings and love to everyone .. from Ireland !!
Fair play.
Another lovely 🇮🇪 Christmas ad is from Woodies, an Irish DIY brand, called Happy Christmas, Mrs Higgins 🤗🤗
because of this video, i got a recommendation by youtube for a video that explained the history of that event :
"WW1 Christmas Truce: Stille Nacht - Extra History - # 1"
I watch this ad every year. And I cry every time. Beautiful and gut wrenchingly sad.
The best advert ever, it always makes me cry,I have worked in Sainsbury's for eighteen years, so I saw it before it actually first was shown on tv and knew immediately it was special. There is a version of the advert that shows you how it was made and a bit of the story behind it.
This is one of the best heartfelt Christmas adverts ever made. Beautifully done.
This is my History and my Country 🏴🏴🇬🇧🇬🇧
War really is so very pointless, isn't it. Love you guys. Greetings from England. X
Many respects 🇩🇪 from 🇬🇧
Love and respect from Liverpool UK, enjoy your channel guys, my great uncle was killed by a land mine the day after the war ended.
Seeing videos like this doesn’t make my cry for the loss so much but angry that it was started and ended by politics and, after two World Wars and almost 100 years, the people in this world still can’t seem to get along.
Wow crying just watching this after 10 years. Definitely one of the best Christmas adverts ever.
We all share blood, but we're torn apart because of the greed, bitterness and ego of the few.
The best advert ever
My grandad Ralph William Williams was in the British Amy from 1896 until 1919 he was in the Boer war south Africa, and took part in this football match in WW1. He died in November 1939 at the beginning of WW2.
Christmas day 1914 there was actually an unofficial truce and the English and German soldiers came together in no man's land, it was not universal across the Western Front, where my Grandfather was on the front it did happen.
It happened in the area of Ploegsteert, just south of the Ypres salient on the Belgian side of the border.
When will people ever learn it was British and not just English soldiers.
@@timphillips9954 when will people learn that it wasn't just the british that fought in the british army.....
@@timphillips9954 Thank you. As a Scot, I know my Grandfather was in the Royal Navy during WWI, and my Dad was a Normandy veteran whose younger brother was shot down, as a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm. It is very hurtful when so many Scots, Welsh and Irish soldiers, sailors and airmen are simply glossed over. A song which was generally disliked by those servicemen during WW2 was "There'll always be an England." Please do not forget the other three nationalities. They bled and died too.
@@The-Spanish-Inquisition490 About 92 percent where British
My grandfather fought in WWI. He was born in 1888 and a professional soldier and was one of the ones who fought on the frontline in these very foxholes. I never met him as he died of the injuries he sustained fighting. This advert is a great tribute to those who endured the Great War and fell or otherwise. Thank you for your heartfelt and respectful reaction❤.
They did actually play football with each other on Christmas day 1914.... crazy. Just shows the soldiers didn't want the war
Its an ad beyond ads... 1914...
Our history...
My family history ...
My Irish Grandad joined the Scots and fought along side them in the Black Watch... He was born in July 1894, so was just twenty that year.
According to my Great Grand Fathers war diaries. His older brother my Great Grand Uncle fought in the Black Watch in WW1. He is believed to have fallen at Battle of Pilckem Ridge 1917. His body was never recovered.
@richardsanders.4624❤
@richardsanders.4624
I am sorry for your loss.
This always leaves me an emotional wreck. I remember my two grandfathers who served in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and The Duke of Cornwall's regiment in this great war. God rest their dear souls, and all the young men that suffered Hell.
🌹🇬🇧🌹Still makes me cry….🎄⛄️
My grandma’s two brothers were both killed in that terrible war, one of her brothers was Danny and the other was John, Danny died in the first week of the war in 1914, every time she heard the song Danny Boy she always cried. Imagine being in those trenches for months in the freezing cold and to having fight at the same time.
I cry every time I see this and no matter how many times I've seen it.
I remember this ad because Cadbury done special wrapping on chocolate bars especially for this with profits going to military charities for Christmas. They also had big banners at their factory in Birmingham where I live. I remember seeing them.
They usually put them up as well have seen it on the way out to work from the train
Peace and love from England ❤
Beautiful genuine reaction 😘
No matter how many times I see this advert it always brings tears to my eyes 😢
Growing up in Denmark, even I was taught about the WW1 Christmas Truce
Yes it really happened. There was a Christmas Day truce during WW1.
If you want to watch a beautiful British, tear-jerker film set during WW2, watch ‘Goodnight Mr Tom’. Children who lived in London had to leave and go to stay in the countryside during the Blitz and this one particular boy goes to stay with Mr Tom.
Another good tear-jerker film is ‘Goodbye Mr Chips’ starring Martin Clunes. It’s about the life of a gentle and kindly schoolteacher at a public school and WW1 breaks out where many of his former pupils have to go and serve. Lyndsey would do enjoy them based on her reaction to this advert.
I second Goodnight Mr Tom!
I second 'Goodbye Mr Chips' with Martin Clunes. I've also heard good things about 'Goodnight Mr Tom' as well. I will have to see about watching that one myself soon.
Absolutly 2 brilliant TV films
@@Loulizabeth you will love it, briliant acting from the Boy and Mr Tom
@@Strawberry-zd2bx me too, have watched it a few times.
Uk Christmas Ads are amazing & make you cry ❤
The main place these particular stories come from is Ploegsteert in Belgium (known as Plug Street to the British), as one of the soldiers wrote a famous diary about his experiences during the truce. But similar things happened down the entire line all the way to Switzerland, and possibly beyond, mostly between British and Germans troops. One German remarked to an Englishman "We are Saxon- you are Anglo-Saxon... we are brothers!".
At Ploegsteert the front lines were only 20yds apart and the trenches only deep enough to crouch in, so hearing the other side singing carols was easy. They were also so narrow that you had to climb out of the trench to let another guy past (being that early in the war, no one had really "dug in" yet). Also worth noting that this was a whole YEAR before steel helmets were issued, so both sides were sitting targets for the other! The trenches were also flooded through Christmas as a result of the farming irrigation systems being destroyed, so part of the terms of the truce was that both sides had the opportunity to pump water out. At that spot in particular, the truce lasted until 1st January. My ancestor died the following day and is buried nearby, perhaps the first in his trench to lose his life after the truce. I know I've said it before but I will say it again... he died having been reminded of the better side of humanity, and I take comfort in that.
People still leave footballs at Ploegsteert today.
The Christmas truce was started by German soldiers singing silent night and the followed by a shout of ‘you no shoot, we no shoot’ - the Imperial War Museum put out a good video on it a few years ago: ruclips.net/video/NaBJhmkDKmc/видео.htmlsi=KKjrDjr9TGuoq6dN
Even though I remember when this advert was released I still cried. I’ve just watched a video on the English Christmas of 1944 and it makes you realise just how blessed we are. We have so much to be grateful for and we need to be reminded of that from time to time.
I guess you could figure this out but I am from England 🏴
English translation of Otto:- "Halt! He doesn't have a weapon!".
Shune means 'very pretty' I think when describing the girls photo.
Schön.. lovely, beautiful, pretty..
Thank you for translating :)
You have to be a hard hearted soul not be be brought to tears by this poignant video. I’ve watched it every Christmas since it was released and I tear up everytime.
My father - who served in the army during WW2, and passed away in 1985 - use to work for a haulage company back in the early 60's. Purely by chance, he ended up working with a former German POW, who also drove for the same company. After a little while, it transpired the German guy had stayed in England after the war had ended, marrying an English girl. He had been an SS soldier during the war, and did not want to return to Germany for fear of retribution. My father said he turned out to be one of the most hard working and reliable workmates you could have wished for......
No-one ever said the Germans weren't hard working and reliable.....like their trains
i balled when i first saw this advert and balled now watching it. knowing that they put their soldier hats off and became human for those minutes is such a beautiful thing to think about
You are so right Steve!! It was based on a true event,soldiers on both sides got out of their respective trenches and met up in no mans land and chatted ,until someone brought a football. Observers noted the soldiers playing football and immediately put a stop to it .Neither side claimed to have started the shelling ,but soldiers said they wouldn,t fire on each other in certain sectors . A very poinant advert!!
I've worked for Sainsburys since 2002, and I'm still so proud of this one! I remember watching this a few days before it aired on tv, and a few of us were a bit tearful at the end. I especially because I'd lost my Dad the year before and my Mum just a few weeks earlier.
My Maternal Grandfather survived the horrors of WW1. He served in The Irish Guards, but sadly I never got to meet him as he passed away before I was born.
I have worked for Sainsbury's for 38 years, that was the best advert we have ever done! The company was founded in 1869 so a bit of history there to explore.
Generals were worried that soldiers would see each other as people just like themselves, rather than the enemy.When the high command learned of the truce, they ordered soldiers to return to their trenches x
Yeah, sounds about right, unfortunately!
Yep both British & German soldiers played a game of football, and exchanged chocolate for cigs etc. brandy for whisky etc. couples hours later artillery geared up.
There is a good movie made about this. Joyeux Noel(2005). I watch it every Christmas.
There are some moments in time that could make a glass eye shed a tear - this is up there
Such a powerful yet poignant true story, beautifully filmed.
The horrific reality was that for the rest of the war, those young boys had to fight each other in appalling conditions in the trenches, enduring gas attacks which was unimaginable. The generals on both sides were dreadful, using these young men as cannon fodder. All British families have great grandparents who either died or suffered in the so-called ‘Great War’.
In showing this you’re remembering these poor men, and the futility of war.
I think the phrase that sums up ww1- "Lions led by donkeys"
I have lost count on how many times i have seen this ad but it tears my up everytime, its very moving.
It shows humanity and a hope we all have inside that even amidst mans inhumanity to man humanity can shine through.
The troops where apparently singing carols in the trenches on Christmas Eve and each army heard each other then started to sing together. They then came out of the trenches on Christmas Day and exchanged gifts and played a game of football, had Christmas dinner and sang carols before the commanders ordered them back into the trenches.
This was filmed using a reanactment group who sadly split up their last job was the filming of three episodes of Dad’s Army that were lost a long time ago. The chocolate bar featured in this advert is Belgian 🇧🇪 chocolate it sold out in my local Sainsbury’s store where I was working at the time. I first saw the bar of chocolate after returning from a battlefield tour. The Christmas Truce which is re-enacted in this advert took place in 1914, I visited a location in Belgium where it took place the same re-enactment group I mentioned in first sentence earlier placed a wooden cross on the field in their memory. There is a cemetery on the opposite side of the road, three more cemeteries are in a nearby wood and one more on the opposite side of the wood. Nearby is a museum new at the time of my visit. Down the road are two cemeteries on opposite sides of the road also a memorial on one side of the road. I visited a museum in Ieper In Flanders Fields Museum, Hooge Crater Museum opposite is Hooge Crater Cemetery (there is a crater in the cemetery with the Cross of Sacrifice inside it) and Memorial Museum Passendaele 1917 in Zonnebeke (where the race I was in started and finished 13km/8.07 miles which went through the grounds, I was the only British runner two years on the trot this year the second time for The King, club and country). There is film out there of the making of the advert plus people involved in the advert from Sainsbury’s and The Royal British Legion whose emblem you see making an appearance at the end talking about it and the war. The Royal British Legion received money from this advert. Following The last Post played on bugles The Exhortation by L. Binyon is read before wreath laying the following is said They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old age shall not weary them nor the years condemn at the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them WE WILL REMEMBER THEM. Sometimes this follows but not every ceremony The Kohima Epitaph When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today (this is not said the end of every Last Post Ceremony at The Menin Gate in Ieper Belgium 🇧🇪).Reveille is played and The Last Post ceremony comes to an end. My visit to The Menin Gate Memorial Last month I was the first wreath layer for the first time in all the years I have visited my first visit was in 2005 I didn’t lay a wreath until 2008in memory of my local regiment The 10th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment The Grimsby Chums the only Pals battalion called Chums.
I remember the very first time I saw this, I was cooking dinner with the TV on in the background, and I just stopped what I was doing and stood there with tears pouring down my face. It was especially poignant for me at the time in 2014 as my two boys were 23 and 20, which was a similar age to most of the soldiers depicted in the advert. It still makes me cry every time I see it.
Just google WWI Christmas football match and you'll find loads of articles, it happened and in more than one place.
When I started my first job in 1980 I worked alongside a wonderful old German bloke who had settled in my hometown after WWII, he'd been conscripted into the German army as a teenager and was captured by the British army.
As we did with a lot of POWs who we didn't consider a threat he worked on the farms and mingled with the locals, that's how he met his wife to be, they married and stayed here.
The big Christmas song that year was called Stop The Cavalry by Jona Lewie, the song and accompanying video is based on WWI and features a German Oompah band, my old German friend used to walk up and down the warehouse making the Oompah band noises Gert Frobe style ( Gert and his beatbox sounds are on YT, they'll crack you up ).
Every time I hear that song I raise a glass to my old mate Martin Fischer, RIP old buddy.
My mums bought that on a single record & when I was younger i absolutely loved it still do , still got the record lol
This pulls my heart string every time I watch it, they maybe enemies today and tomorrow but even they can show respect because we are human
I have never forgotten that add! It was a sobering one frankly! What for me is interesting is that my name is Belgian! but my Belgian grandfather was wounded in WWI and sent to England to a hospital and decided to live in England! If we had not had WWI my dad and eventually me too would not have been born in the UK! So! There is another aspect of that World War!! My Belgian Grandfather had one experience in his Belgian Trenches! It was this! A colleague of his light a lighter to light his cigarette that he had passed to my Grandfather! Just as my grandfather turned his head! He felt a built go through one of his ear lobos! He pretended to be dead and turning his head at the right time saved his life!!
If Hitlers greed didn't invade 🇧🇪 🇬🇧 wouldn't of got involved
I was in secondary (high school) when this advert came out and our school had a military cadet force (both air force and army sections). Our school organised a game for charity (Royal British Legion) where we played a game of football on the very muddy rugby pitch in our full combat gear, boots and all. Whilst it was fun at the time, it was also important to remember the event of the Christmas Day truce and some of the poignant points about war in general that you pointed out.
Have a merry Christmas ❤️
"With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free." for the fallen.
As others have said, the truces really did happen - not everywhere (the front line was hundreds of miles long, remember), but there's documented proof that it happened. References to at least one football match are in at least one regimental war diary, and letters home sent by people who were there.
Importantly for this advert - the packaging of the chocolate bar in the ad was a replica of a 1914 bar of Sainsbury's chocolate. And the bars were sold in Sainsbury's, with the proceeds going to the British Legion (veterans charity).
This advert was absolutely incredible
Christmas Truce - Sabaton.
There's an animated story or a full episode on their channel detailing the event.
It is the greatest advert in UK history and not only is it loved so much but it shows one of the true events that happened only once in WW1 but never happened again ever. Where I come from in England our county had two Regiments of men, one of the Battalions was involved in the Christmas Truce of 1914. I also know that the famous Football match between British Troops and German Troops, well the ball was provided by a British Soldier in the London Irish Regiment and the actual ball is still around today, and is in the London Irish Regiments museum at their Barracks in London. The Rugby club that I am a fan of is The London Irish Rugby Union Club and the Club has very strong ties with the London Irish Regiment which is still a Regiment that is part of the British Army today. The Christmas Truce of 1914 means a lot to us British and our German friends as our troops from our nations were the only countries involved in the Christmas Truce. There was a cross planted on the battlefield where the Christmas Truce started, over 120,000 soldiers from both British and German sides were involved in this incredible act of humanity and Christmas spirit. As a British patriot and someone who has grown up very interested in military history especially my country's, this actuall event is my favourite. There are many incredible true events that have happened that are awe inspiring. My favourite metal band who are called Sabaton who come from Sweden, made an incredible Christmas song about this event and other true military events in history and also about absolutely brave heroes in times of war. You should check out Sabaton and Christmas Truce also there video. 💂♂️💂♂️🇬🇧🇬🇧🏴🏴🇮🇪🇮🇪
It was Scots that started playing their bagpipes which lead to a sing song 🎶 . Ye can thank the Scot’s 🏴
Ireland were neutral I’d call it yellow sitting out while Europe was on fire. Yup they hid away out on there island out of the way .
@Parker_Douglas Actually 110,000 Irish Men joined the British Armed Forces during WW1, and in WW2 100,000 Irish Men joined the British Armed Forces in WW2, I should know as two of my cousins from Dublin in the Republic of Ireland joined the British Army and they were in the Royal Military Police during WW2. You should look up facts before you make statements that are completely wrong and disgusting. Those Irish Men who joined the British Armed Forces in WW1 and in WW2 have been recognised and honoured by the government of the UK and the Republic of Ireland. 💂♂️💂♂️🇬🇧🇬🇧🏴🏴🇮🇪🇮🇪😡😡🤬🤬
Crying now, even after seeing this more times rhan I can remember! Thank you for the heartfelt and beautiful reaction guys, to one , if not the best Christmas advert ever. Much love and happy Christmas to you and yours ❤️
It definitely happened well documented
I heard the truce happened but there was no proof the football game took place. It was just a kick about.
The occasion was called the Christmas Truce of 1914. It occurred during World War I when German and British soldiers along the Western Front temporarily ceased hostilities on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
During this unofficial truce, soldiers emerged from their trenches, exchanged greetings and gifts, sang carols, and in some places, reportedly played informal games of football (soccer). The event is remembered as a rare moment of humanity and camaraderie amidst the horrors of war.
One of the greatest Christmas ads in British tv history
If they ever played this advert back to back with the finale of Blackadder Goes Forth it would take me hours to compose myself. We are capable of making wonderful film when we want to, as a country.
My grandfather was a young soldier in that war, he was in the Durham light infantry, enlisted at 17 because he lied about his age, and my great uncle Fred fought too, he never came home
NO ONE Makes an Add like us Brits! The Actual Ball used is Safe & Sound in the UK. ✌🏻🇬🇧🇺🇸
There is an animated film about this called War Game (2002). My brother worked on it as an animator. It's definitely worth a watch. They showed it in my daughter's school and she told the teacher that her uncle animated it and the teacher told her off for lying. I went into school and corrected the teacher, my daughter just looked up at him and said "told you".
These Christmas ads make me bawl! And I'm a 6ft tall stocky man!
Ah, but you're Welsh. The hearts of the men of the Celtic races are strong, but full of emotion too. Diolch o Albanwr!
They are beautiful!
@Yesser-Thistle73 👍👍
Lindsay you held out longer than me. It has me crying 😢 everytime. Imo it's the best advert we have done in the UK. What those boys went through, the living in the trenches were horrendous.
If this could happen nowadays for 5 mins, just 5 mins it could change the course of our futures
Extra Credits has a video about it I would recommend, also the heavy metal band known as Sabaton has a song about the Christmas Truce. To my knowledge the Christmas Truce was a series of armistices and ceasefires held throughout Christmas on 1914, particularly through British and German Troops, the French were less inclined, as Germany had invaded them. The troops as seen had heard the Germans singing the original Austrian or German (I’m unsure) version of Silent Night as you see, a British line heard and took up a challenge, originally attempting to drown the Germans out with their own carols, but it turned to harmony. I’m no where near a historian so take that with a grain of salt, a lot of my knowledge came from Extra Credits video and a few bits I got online. A German officer even gave a British Officer a Victoria Cross, (which btw is the British version of the Medal of Honor) and a few letters from a British soldier that died in a German trench, and the British Officer gave him a scarf, which was a gift to him from home.