The young Scotsman quickly peddles his bicycle down the narrow country lane toward the small community church.  Once there, he rushes inside where the priest has just completed lighting the candles in preparation for vespers.  The young man heads immediately to the rope dangling from the steeple and begins ringing the great bell.  With exuberant voice he announces the news, “This is it!  War has been declared!”  Just before he goes back outside, he turns and exclaims, “At last, something’s happening in our lives!”  It’s the summer of 1914, the year that forever changed the world.  The young man was perhaps more prescient than he ever imagined.  Yes, something would be happening in his life, and in the lives of countless young men from around the globe, but most of what would happen was of the tragic variety.  It was something this young man was far too naïve to understand.  The priest knows it, though, and as the young man leaves the church, the look on the priest’s face betrays his sorrow at the impending catastrophe of World War I.  A gust of wind blows through the open door into the small sanctuary, immediately extinguishing the candle flames.  Darkness has descended upon Europe.

It is a strange beginning for a Christmas movie, but Christmas movie it is.  Its title, “Joyeux Noel”, leaves no doubt about that.  The film fast forwards four and a half months.  It is the Christmas season.  There were already a million casualties, an astonishingly high number for such a short period of time.  The exuberance of the summer had quickly morphed into a hardened disillusionment with both the war’s objectives and its leadership.  Aware of the declining morale, the German high command ordered the delivery of thousands of small Christmas trees to brighten the dismally cold atmosphere of the Western trenches.

One of the German soldiers, a world-renown opera singer in a previous life, lifts one of the lit trees and begins singing “Stille Nacht” for his German comrades.  From across No Man’s Land, the Scottish troops hear the hymn as well, and soon the singer is accompanied by Scottish bagpipes.  With little regard for his own life, the singer climbs out of the trench and sings for the men on both sides.  Once “Silent Night” is finished, the pipes launch into the opening refrain of “Adeste Fideles”.  The singer gladly joins, and to the astonishment of all, the murderous intent of the previous months slowly evaporates.  The famous World War I Christmas truce has begun.

It’s a well known story.  All along the Western Front, a spontaneous cease fire erupted that Christmas of 1914.  Stretching from the Swiss border to the North Sea, millions of soldiers discovered they had more in common with the enlisted men they had been trying to kill just a few hours before than with their commanding officers who were comfortably ensconced in their great villas miles from the front lines.  “Joyeux Noel” focuses on just one small piece of that truce, following small battalions of German, French, and Scots in an unnamed locale of the front. 

Before long, the priest we had seen at the opening of the film, now the chaplain of his Scotish battalion, is leading an ecumenical Christmas Eve service in No Man’s Land.  Germans are sharing Christmas treats with Frenchmen, who offer bottles of wine and cognac in return.  A barber offers haircuts to Scots, Germans, and French alike.  When word arrives to the German commanding officer that there will soon be an artillery bombardment of French and Scottish lines, the German offers his former enemies refuge inside German trenches.  The favor is returned by the French a few minutes later, just in time to avoid the inevitable counter bombardment of German lines.

Of course, the Christmas truce was only a temporary lull in the bloody apocalypse of the Great War.  When the high command on each side learned of the ceasefire, they quickly disbanded and reorganized their regiments so those who had fraternized would be separated.  In future years, vicious bombardments were scheduled on Christmas to prevent even the opportunity of fraternization.  The Christmas truce would not be repeated.

Joyeux Noel is obviously a war film.  But it is much more than that.  It is a film that highlights the universal message of Christmas.  It is a film that boldly illustrates what can happen when men do God’s bidding rather than follow the orders of flawed and corrupt men.  When he is being chastised for his role in the ceasefire, the Scottish priest replies, “I truly believe our Lord Jesus Christ guided me in what was the most important mass of my life.  I tried to be true to His trust, to carry His message to all, whoever they may be.”

Ultimately, isn’t that the real meaning of Christmas?