For those of you who aren't following my Facebook page 'Joel Mole' (Which you should if you haven't done already) you'll know that I've been reviewing Christmas adverts from the 1st to the 25th December. I did these in no particular order but I knew that I had to do one advert on Christmas Day. That is Sainsbury's '1914' advert released in 2014.
For those of you who don't know, on Christmas Day in 1914, soldiers on both sides decided to stop fighting and greet each other as friends. They sang carols and even played football together. Nothing like that has ever happened before or since but it stuck in our memories. There's a film all about it called Joyeux Noel that details the event as well as what happened after, it was made into a song called 'Snoopy's Christmas,' it has been referenced in TV (most notably, the 2017 Doctor Who Christmas special 'Twice Upon a Time') and of course, 100 years later, Sainsbury's honoured the event in their 2014 Christmas advert.
In my opinion, this is one of the greatest moments of humanity. Despite the fact that the world was at war with each other, everybody decided to stop for one day because it was right. And to be honest, it's a real shame that nothing like that has happened since. Granted, I get why it hasn't happened since. The soldiers got into major trouble with their superiors and I'd imagine things haven't changed in that respect.
But still, I think we can learn from this, even if we're not soldiers. What saddens me this year is that people have gotten a lot more hostile towards each other. Fandoms are ripping each other apart because of differing opinions, racism and homophobia are sadly still a thing, the white supremacist movement is worryingly getting noticed and whenever politics even gets mentioned, even the sanest person gets angry (even I've gotten righteously angry at times).
And yet soldiers who were forced to kill each other by squabbling politicians and commanders decided against that, even if it was for one day. I feel like we need to stop fighting and show some flipping human decency for once. Especially at Christmas. And we shouldn't have to get into trouble for doing so.
So what I want you guys to remember for this Christmas as well as 2019 onwards is this: no matter how bad things get, always try to be nice and never fail to be kind to each other. It'll make a world of difference. And I don't just mean on Christmas Day either. Because if soldiers from one of the biggest wars in history could do it, why can't we?
That concludes this festive thought from an autistic mind. What do you think about this matter? Should we follow the example of the soldiers who took part of the WW1 Christmas Truce? Why/why not? Leave your thoughts below and be sure to follow my Facebook page 'Joel Mole' for more stuffs. Until the next time, fair thee well good people of the internet!
And have a merry Christmas!
