How, Roosevelt asked, could people possibly take a day off to celebrate under the circumstances? And it was a reasonable question, not just in 1941 but at almost any point in human history. Saying “Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men” is all fine and good, indeed obligatory. But if a sarcastic “Don’t hold your breath” comes from the cheap seats it’s hard not to laugh … and cry.
Still, thinking back to Christmas 1941 may help us find a way. It is remarkable to listen to Roosevelt, of whom to be honest I am not a fan, and Churchill, of whom of course I am, and think about those listening to those broadcasts in real time. It was indeed a world at war, a terrible global conflict that the Allies, at that point, appeared to be losing.
Not that either of these great wartime leaders showed the least sign of despair. But while the Blitz had ended, Pearl Harbor was still smouldering, the Battle of the Atlantic hung grimly in the balance, it would be eight months before Canada could even mount the controversial Dieppe raid, and the pivotal American underdog victory at Midway in the Pacific was still nearly six months away, the British one at El Alamein in North Africa nearly a year, and the Soviets’ at Stalingrad in Europe still further off.
One each for the three major Allied combatants. One of whom, of course, was the appalling genocidal dictator Josef Stalin. Not exactly the person you’d most associate with Christmas, which was naturally illegal in the U.S.S.R. FDR and Churchill were sufficiently realist to work with this evil man without, in Churchill’s case, developing any illusions about whom they were dealing with or why. (Famously, after Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Churchill said that if Hitler invaded hell, he would contrive a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.)
The situation was also dismal personally for many, with food rationed, toys scarce and flimsy, and many empty places at the table of those on active service or already dead, with far more casualties to come. Britain had suffered grave civilian losses from the Blitz. France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, and many other countries were overrun, cold, hungry, and oppressed.
“Merry Christmas” did seem, in many ways, out of keeping with the situation. But though we may forget it, with so much food on the table that we throw out leftovers and so many gifts under the tree that we can’t remember who gave us what, Christmas was always about a hope only partially fulfilled, a vision of better things promised despite everything. Nineteen forty-one wasn’t the only dark year.
Indeed, with all due respect to Southern Hemisphere readers, a key to Christmas is that it comes in bleak December. Right after the shortest, darkest day of the year, with temperatures still falling. It was not originally a holiday for people with high-efficiency furnaces, snugly insulated houses, and well-stocked grocery stores. Traditional Christmas desserts were composed of what was left that hadn’t rotted, such as dried grapes, wrinkled apples, and suet, and eaten during a festival that promised that midwinter huddling around a scanty fire, or with animals brought in from the cold, would one day yield to warmth and joy, a rebirth of life physical and spiritual.
It was also, and Roosevelt and Churchill didn’t mince words here, just pies, a religious holiday. It celebrates the birth of Christ, the Messiah, the long hope of Israel fulfilled at last. Just not completely.
He came, He saw, and via death on the cross He conquered. Not his political enemies. He conquered sin, death, and hell. And while His victory would be slow in coming to complete fruition, we are assured it was inevitable, just as Allied victory in 1945 was being prepared in 1941 without being remotely at hand or easy to grasp.
Well, it’s not 1941, and our political leaders don’t remind us of Churchill or Roosevelt even if our enemies do remind us of Hitler and Stalin. But it is Christmas, and as always we rub our eyes in amazement at again finding hope in a fallen world.
Merry Christmas to all, and Peace on Earth.
