A new Christmas television ad inspired by real events from 100 years ago has touched the hearts of ten million viewers on YouTube and many more watching in the UK.
Sainsbury’s, the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, partnered with The Royal British Legion to portray the extraordinary events of Christmas Day, 1914, when the guns fell silent and two armies met in no-man’s land, after voices rang out singing Silent Night.
Soldiers also widely exchanged gifts, whatever they had — small tools, cigarettes, chocolate, schnapps — and sang Auld Lang Syne before returning to their foxholes.
The chocolate bar seen in the ad is raising funds for military families at Sainsbury’s, with all profits (50p per bar) going to The Royal British Legion to benefit Great Britain’s armed forces and veterans.
(WATCH the video below, and a short film about the story behind the ad)
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If you want an even more wrenching version of this real story, see the film Joyeux Noel, a film made by a Frenchman about the British, French, and German units that celebrate Christmas together in 1914. Afterward, they couldn’t shoot each other any more. The officers of the forces were reprimanded by theirs superiors for consorting with the enemy.