<P> In the Decembers of 1916 and 1917, German overtures to the British for truces were recorded without any success . In some French sectors, singing and an exchange of thrown gifts was occasionally recorded, though these may simply have reflected a seasonal extension of the live - and - let - live approach common in the trenches . </P> <P> At Easter 1915 there were recorded instances of truces between Orthodox troops of opposing sides on the Eastern front . The Bulgarian writer Yordan Yovkov, serving as an officer near the Greek border at the Mesta river, witnessed one such truce . It inspired his short story "Holy Night", translated into English in 2013 by Krastu Banaev . </P> <P> Although the popular tendency has been to see the December 1914 Christmas Truces as unique and therefore of romantic rather than political significance, they have also been interpreted as part of the widespread non-co - operation with the war spirit and conduct by serving soldiers . In his book on trench warfare, historian Tony Ashworth describes what he calls the' live and let live system' . Complicated local truces and agreements not to fire at each other were developed by men along the front throughout the war . These often began with agreement not to attack each other at tea, meal or washing times, and in some places became so developed that whole sections of the front would see few casualties for extended periods of time . This system, Ashworth argues,' gave soldiers some control over the conditions of their existence .' The December 1914 Christmas Truces then can be seen as not unique, but as the most dramatic example of non-co - operation with the war spirit that included refusal to fight, unofficial truces, mutinies, strikes, and peace protests . </P> <Ul> <Li> In the 1933 play Petermann schließt Frieden oder Das Gleichnis vom deutschen Opfer (Petermann makes peace: or, the parable of German sacrifice), written by Nazi writer and World War I veteran Heinz Steguweit (in German), a German soldier, accompanied by Christmas carols sung by his comrades, erects an illuminated Christmas tree between the trenches, but is shot dead by the enemy . Later, when the fellow soldiers find his body, they notice in horror that enemy snipers have shot down every single Christmas light from the tree . </Li> <Li> The 1967 song "Snoopy's Christmas" by the Royal Guardsmen was based on the Christmas truce . It is the Red Baron, Germany's ace pilot and war hero, who initiates the truce with the fictitious Snoopy . </Li> <Li> The 1969 film Oh! What a Lovely War includes a scene of a Christmas truce with British and German soldiers sharing jokes, alcohol and songs . </Li> <Li> The video for the 1983 song "Pipes of Peace" by Paul McCartney depicts a fictionalised version of the Christmas truce . </Li> <Li> John McCutcheon's 1984 song, Christmas in the Trenches, tells the story of the 1914 truce through the eyes of a fictional soldier . Performing the song he met German veterans of the truce . </Li> <Li> The final episode of the BBC television series Blackadder Goes Forth references the Christmas truce, with the main character Edmund Blackadder having played in a football match . He is also seen being annoyed at having had a goal disallowed for offside . </Li> <Li> The song "All Together Now" by Liverpool band The Farm took its inspiration from the Christmas Day Truce of 1914 . The song has been re-recorded by The Peace Collective for release in December 2014 to mark the centenary of the event . </Li> <Li> The 1997 song "Belleau Wood" by American country music artist Garth Brooks is a fictional account based on the Christmas truce . </Li> <Li> The truce is dramatised in the 2005 French film Joyeux Noël (English: Merry Christmas), depicted through the eyes of French, British and German soldiers . The film, written and directed by Christian Carion, was screened out of competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival . </Li> <Li> In 2008, the truce was depicted on stage at the Pantages Theater in Minneapolis, in the radio musical drama All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 . It was created and directed by Peter Rothstein, and co-produced by Theater Latté Da and the vocal ensemble Cantus, both Minneapolis - based organisations . It has continued to play at the Pantages Theater each December since its premiere . </Li> <Li> Ahead of the centenary of the truce (December 2014), English composer Chris Eaton and singer Abby Scott produced the song, 1914--The Carol of Christmas, to benefit British armed forces charities . At 5 December 2014, it had reached top of the iTunes Christmas chart . </Li> <Li> In 2014, the Northumbria and Newcastle Universities Martin Luther King Peace Committee produced resources to enable schools and churches to mark the December 1914 Christmas Truces . These included lesson plans, hand - outs, worksheets, PowerPoint slide shows, and full plans for assemblies, and carol services / Christmas productions . The authors explained that their purpose was both to enable schoolteachers to help children learn about the remarkable events of December 1914, but also to use the theme of Christmas to provide a counterpoint to the UK government's glorification of the First World War as heroic . As the Peace Committee argues, "These spontaneous acts of festive goodwill directly contradicted orders from high command, and offered an evocative and hopeful--albeit brief--recognition of shared humanity"--and thereby, they argue, give a rereading of the traditional Christmas message of "on earth peace, good will toward men ." </Li> <Li> The grocery chain Sainsbury's produced a short film for the 2014 Christmas season as an advertisement re-enacting the events of the Christmas truce, primarily following a young English soldier in the trenches . </Li> <Li> In the Doctor Who 2017 Christmas Special "Twice Upon a Time", the First and Twelfth Doctors become unwittingly involved in the fate of a British captain who is seemingly destined to die in battle before he is taken out of time, only for the Twelfth Doctor to bend the rules and return the captain--revealed to be a relative of his friend and ally Brigadier Lethbridge - Stewart--to a point a couple of hours after he was taken out of time to the beginning of the Christmas truce, allowing the captain to live and request aid for his would - be killer . </Li> </Ul>

Was there a ceasefire in world war 2