The finest Xmas poem ever?

Christmas 1914

The finest Christmas poem ever might have been hand-written onto a large sign by an anonymous German soldier, somewhere near Ypres, Belgium:

YOU NO SHOOT. WE NO SHOOT. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Short Peace In A Terrible War

John Nichols in The Nation:

"Alfred Anderson died last month at the very ripe old age of 109. "But it was not the Scotsman's many years that made him remarkable at the end of his long life. It was that, to his last days, he well recalled participating in the Christmas Truce of 1914 -- that brief respite from the carnage of World War I that saw soldiers of both sides in the conflict lay down their arms, climb out of their trenches and celebrate together along the 500-mile Western Front...."

See also:

• "Christmas in The Trenches" by John McCutcheon:

  ...Soon one by one on either side walked into No Man's Land With neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to hand. We shared some secret brandy and wished each other well And in a flare lit soccer game we gave 'em hell....

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truce
• http://www.mises.org/story/1978
• http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/truce.asp

So...

Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, Happy Chanukah, Happy New Year. The year is at its darkest, in what seems (once again) like "the age's most uncertain hour" Find an excuse to keep a light burning in your home, if you've got one, in your hopes, if you have any left, in your heart, if you can still bear it. You never know what might happen.