Christmas Every Day

“May your soul, like a mystical bee, never abandon the little King and may everything within it be for Him.” — St. Francis de Sales

“What worthy return can we make for so great a condescension? The One Only-begotten God, ineffably born of God, entered the Virgin’s womb and grew and took the frame of poor humanity. He who upholds the universe, within whom and through whom are all things, was brought forth by common childbirth. He at whose voice archangels and angels tremble, and heaven and earth and all the elements of this world are melted, was heard in childish wailing. The Invisible and Incomprehensible, whom sight and feeling and touch cannot measure, was wrapped in a cradle.” —St. Hilary of Poitiers

“Christ is born, glorify Him! Christ from heaven, go out to meet Him! Christ on earth, be exalted! Sing to the Lord all the whole earth; and that I may join both in one word, let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad, for Him who is of heaven and then of earth. Christ in the flesh, rejoice with trembling and with joy; with trembling because of your sins, with joy because of your hope.” — St. Gregory Nazianzen 

“He became small because you were small – understand how great He is and you will become great along with Him. This is how houses are built, how the solid walls of a building are raised. The stones brought to construct the building increase, you, too, increase, understanding how great Christ is and how He who appeared to be small is great, very great indeed…” — St. Augustine

“In choosing to be born with us, God chose to be known by us. He therefore reveals himself in this way, in order that this great sacrament of his love may not be an occasion for us of great misunderstanding. Today the magi find, crying in a manger, the one they have followed as he shone in the sky. Today the magi see clearly, swaddling clothes, the one they have long awaited as he lay hidden among the stars. Today the magi graze in deep wonder at what they see: heaven on earth, earth in heaven, humanity in God, God in humanity, one whom the whole universe cannot contain how enclosed in a tiny body. As they look, they believe and do not question, as their symbolic gifts bear witness: incense for God, gold for a king, myrrh got one who is to die… Today Christ enters the Jordan to wash away the sin of the world. John himself testifies that this is why he has come: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world… Today Christ works the first of his signs from heaven by turning water into wine. But water mixed with wine has still to be changed into the sacrament of his blood, so that Christ may offer spiritual drink from the chalice of his body.” — St. Peter Chrysologus

“At this Christmas, when Christ Comes, will he find a warm heart? Mark the season of advent by loving and serving the othes with God’s own love and concern ” — Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta

It was a Christmas that carried little of the cheer that had traditionally been a part of the German celebration of the birth of Christ. Fritz Nadler reported that in the shops of Nuremberg nothing was left to buy – only the dummies once used to display clothing remained in the windows. For children, there were only the primitive toys made by the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls. For Bavarians in general, the approach of the Christmas season carried no emotional lift – weariness and a sense of crisis brought a “somewhat sentimental” mood, said a Sicherheitsdienst report. Ursula von Kardorff spent Christmas eve in the Gedächtniskirche in Berlin, the great church crowded with women and many soldiers-“all the women were weeping.”

The family of Josef Fischer in Cologne wondered whether they would ever really be able to think of Christmas as a festival of peace – but they did have a Christmas tree brought in by sled from the woods and decorated with six candles, which still delighted the children. One aspect of life was a little better. The regime sought to cushion coming bad news by improving the food provisions. Sugar shortages were avoided by the importation of 110,000 tons from Hungary, and the shortage of wheat in the old Reich, due to the severe past winter, was offset by the importation of 750,000 tons from the new Gaus of Posen and West Prussia created after the conquest of Poland. Fat shortages were reduced by importing sunflower seeds from the Ukraine and the Don and Kuban areas of Russia. And, best of all, the potato harvest was regarded as good enough to allow a ration increase from two and one-half kilograms to four and one-half kilograms per person, per week.

Another source of food at home came with the provision of furlough packages of food for soldiers on leave. These so-called “Führer packages” included two and one half kilograms of wheat flour, one kilogram of sugar, one kilogram of meat, and one and one half kilograms of other food supplies. Along with special Christmas rations, slight increases of bread and meat rations, and issues of wine, there was some improvement of morale-the people for the first time in a long while were able to eat their fill again. Children in Nuremberg got a pound of apples as a special ration. The Nadlers fell into luck when Fritz provided books for a neighbor from a farming family and received a five-pound duck for Christmas. The Fischers might have bought a hen if they had got there in time-they came from Poland -but had to settle for a small rabbit, along with fifty grams of coffee per person, “booty from France.” The Messerschmitt works in Regensburg still had a Christmas festival for their employees and gave presents to the children. 

In late 1942 the German army reached the Russian city of Stalingrad on the Volga. A Russian counterattack in November led to an encirclement of the German forces by the Red Army. This is how some starving and freezing Wehrmacht troops marked Christmas.

Lieutenant Sachonbeck, a 20-year-old officer with the 24th Panzer Division, took some comfort in the preparations he had made for the festivities. “On December 24th there were about fifteen men in my bunker. That morning, under fairly heavy fire, I had managed to dig up a little pine tree buried in the snow of the steppe – probably one of the very few Christmas trees in the entire Kessel. That spring, when I’d been billeted with a priest in Brittany, I’d scrounged three church candles that were just the right size to fit into my backpack. I had no idea why at the time, I just liked the look of them. It got dark very early. The candles were burning as I told the Christmas story and spoke the Lord’s Prayer. A little later, the crackly loudspeaker transmitted a Christmas message from the Forces’ radio station in Germany. It was being broadcast everywhere from the North Pole to Africa. At that time an enormous part of the world belonged to us. When Stalingrad was called we began to tremble though we were indoors in the warm that evening. Then when the words ‘Stille Nacht, heilige Nacbt…’ were sung, our tears started to flow. We cried for a long time. From that moment, no one said so much as a word – maybe for a whole hour.”

Another German soldier, Wilhelm Hoffman of the 267th Regiment of the 94th Infantry Division, made a last entry in his diary, writing: “The horses have already been eaten. I would eat a cat; they say its meat is also tasty. The soldiers look like corpses or lunatics, looking for something to put in their mouths. They no longer take cover from Russian shells; they haven’t the strength to walk, run away and hide. A curse on this war.”

More in our Christmas Dinner in Strange Places series.

Royal flunkeys bring in the boar’s head and a monstrous pie for the royal dinner of Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle.

A look at Christmas fare in the officers’ mess in a British army encampment during the Crimea War, 1855.