<P> Since the 1980s a variety of social events for young Jews have sprung up, and become popular, on Christmas Eve . These include the Matzo Ball, The Ball, and a number of local events organized by Jewish communities and local Jewish Federations in North America . </P> <P> A number of historical events have been influenced by the occurrence of Christmas Eve . </P> <P> During World War I in 1914 and 1915 there was an unofficial Christmas truce, particularly between British and German troops . The truce began on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1914, when German troops began decorating the area around their trenches in the region of Ypres, Belgium, for Christmas . They began by placing candles on trees, then continued the celebration by singing Christmas carols, most notably Stille Nacht ("Silent Night"). The British troops in the trenches across from them responded by singing English carols . The two sides shouted Christmas greetings to each other . Soon there were calls for visits across the "No man's land" when small gifts were exchanged . The truce also allowed a breathing space during which recently killed soldiers could be brought back behind their lines by burial parties . Funerals took place as soldiers from both sides mourned the dead together and paid their respects . At one funeral in No Man's Land, soldiers from both sides gathered and read a passage from Psalm 23 . The truce occurred in spite of opposition at higher levels of the military command . Earlier in the autumn, a call by Pope Benedict XV for an official truce between the warring governments had been ignored . </P> <P> On 24 December 1968, in what was the most watched television broadcast to that date, the astronauts Bill Anders, Jim Lovell and Frank Borman of Apollo 8 surprised the world with a reading of the Creation from the Book of Genesis as they orbited the moon . Madalyn Murray O'Hair, an atheist activist, filed a lawsuit under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment; the US Supreme Court dismissed the suit . </P>

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