Snoopy's Christmas

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"Snoopy's Christmas" is a song performed by The Royal Guardsmen in 1967. It continues to be played as a holiday favorite on most "oldie" radio stations, however is also often played on radio stations playing a Hit Music format as well as Adult Contemporary format stations. While these stations wouldn't normally play music from this era radio stations will make exceptions to mix certain Christmas songs with the usual playlist during the Holiday period.

[edit] Overview

A followup to their earlier song "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron," the song is about how Snoopy had to go out and fight the Red Baron on Christmas Eve and the two enemies set aside their differences for that night. At the end, they share a holiday toast and then Snoopy and the Red Baron fly their separate ways, "each knowing they'd meet on some other day". This song is a popular Christmas song and many radio stations play it during the Christmas season.

What many do not realize is that although the song is obviously fictional, it does have its roots in fact.

During World War I, in 1914, an event known as "The Christmas Truce" took place between the Germans and the British, initiated not by the commanders, but by the soldiers themselves. The enemies took some time (the amount of time varied according to the area and has been reported as being anything from Christmas Day to Christmas Day through New Year's Day) to exchange small gifts such as beer (from the Germans to the British) and tobacco and tinned meat (from the British to the Germans). "No Man's Land" was cleared of the dead bodies, the trenches were repaired and drained, and the troops from both sides shared pictures of their families with each other and, in some places, even using "No Man's Land" to engage in friendly games of football (soccer in the U.S. and Canada).

The song even has the initiator correct as it was generally the German soldiers who called over to the British and initiated the truce. In the song, it is the Red Baron (a German WWI hero) who extends the hand of Christmas friendship to Snoopy.