Joyeux Noel!

It sounds too good to be true but at the beginning of World War One in 1914, hundreds of British, French and German soldiers fighting each other in front line trenches laid down their weapons for a cease fire and even shared chocolates and champagne! The reason: it was Christmas Eve.

A new French film Joyeux Noel tells the story of this remarkable event that marks a point in history where soildiers stop shooting at an enemy and recognise each other as people, people who share the same interests and in civillian life may even have been friends.

It brings to light the de-humanising aspects of war and soldiers which not only happens between enemies but also by onlookers such as ourselves. These men who were teachers, bakers, plumbers, students and shop-keepers in their 'real lives' showed what can be achieved when people understand each other.

They were fighting someone else's war and had the sense of mind to be able to recognise that and suspend the fighting for a short time of peace.

Keep an eye open for the film and consider the reality of the hundreds of children fighting in the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda and all over the world, who haven't got the chance to take a break from the bullets and the killings for Christmas.