In Flanders 101 years ago, the first Christmas Eve of the Great War, British and German trenches often only 100 yards apart, manned by young men who were homesick and afraid and then something remarkable happened: the carnage stopped as both sides agreed to call a temporary Christmas Eve truce. Orders were forgotten, the mission was forgotten and both sides met in No Mans land. They shook hands, exchanged modest gifts and sang Christmas Carols together. After a while, they returned to their trenches and the awful fighting began again, hand to hand with fixed bayonets, that kind of awful.
For a few hours at least, men had forgotten the savagery and became civilized. Would that it could happen again.