Christmas ... What does it mean to other people

 First, I want to say to the people who were caught in the tornadoes in the Midwest, you are in our thoughts and prayers for going through the devastating power of Mother Nature. I understand the grief you must feel for the lives lost. Try to stay strong.

In these times of uncertainty, many people feel lost due to natural disasters, ongoing inflation from gas to groceries, school shootings and social media misinformation spreading like a fire. But the thought of a brighter and happier time is coming. Yes, I mean Christmas.

Christmas means and is celebrated differently to people in different countries.Christmas is a religious holiday and for some countries it is not celebrated at all. In Europe, the Christmas season starts December 1st. In the Netherlands, (Holland) Saint Nicolas comes to good children on the 5th of December, and Christmas is celebrated on the 25th and the 26th.

The story of Scrooge was always mine personal favorite tale. How he was turned from a non-believer into a believer. But there is one that warms your soul and exhibits hope in the grim times. It took place in Europe during WWI. Here is the story told to writers from the last surviving soldiers of that time.

"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."

During the upcoming Christmas (and all year long), we must all forgive, be trusting, help those that can not help themselves, and remember 'WE ARE ALL PART OF THE SAME RACE', the Human Race.

I know Christmas is several days away, but you can start now. Reach out to cheer someone's Christmas. It does not take much. Maybe just saying Merry Christmas to someone you don't know. Try it. Take care, stay safe and Merry Christmas.