Christmas celebrations in a time of war
From lunches, music and dance, to dressing up a tank in ribbons to deliver toys to children, we look back at how members of the Allied Forces and civilians marked Christmas during World War II.
The following text is from “Santa Claus Rides American Tank Bringing Toys to British Children”, by Gladwin Hill, Dec. 15, 1942.
At a U.S. tank base somewhere in England, Dec 15 – Santa Claus came rumbling across the fields in a General Grant tank today, bringing more candy for each of the children of this village than they ordinarily get in months.
Some day the English children of the village may forget the war, but it is doubtful if they will ever forget the Christmas party the American soldiers gave for them.
A General Grant tank did duty as a sleigh, bringing toys for nearly 100 English children, war orphans and children of British service men on Dec. 15, 1942, in England. Playing Santa Claus is Captain Raymond Jennison. (AP Photo)
The beribboned tanks not only brought candy but toys far better than most children will see this toy-scarce Christmas, rare American soft drinks by the gallon and enough fudge, fruit and cake to satisfy stomachs all around.
Dolled up in their best party clothes…the hundred squealing kids were mainly children of British soldiers away at war.
These little toddlers may have been sleeping on bunks in a London tube station on Christmas Eve 1940, but they woke up to a beautifully decorated Christmas tree, with lots of good things hanging on it and even the stockings hanging on their bunks were filled with presents. (AP Photo)
Children enjoying themselves at a Christmas Party, Dec. 25, 1940, in an underground shelter in London, England. (AP Photo)
In the three years since they had seen their daddies go away clothes had become scarcer, food and fun shorter. Bombers and strafers had roared down over their homes and villages. Every night was the same black and dark.
Then the funny-talking Americans came with their big machines, their laughter and their jokes. And finally the party.
A little English girl, one of 300 evacuee children from the East End of London, gets a lesson in bugle-blowing from one of the Canadian troops at a Christmas party around Dec. 17, 1941, in England. (AP Photo)
More than 200 children who had either been bombed out or their fathers were prisoners of war, are waited on by members of the Canadian Army at a Christmas party, around Dec. 16, 1941, in England. (AP Photo)
U.S. army officers play hosts as they serve their young English guests at the Yuletide party which the Americans gave in England. (AP Photo)
The officers sacrificed a month’s candy ration to provide armloads of sweets and peanuts and chipped in $2 apiece for the toy fund.
Mess Sergeant Lloyd Johnson, Seattle, sweat his willing staff many hours of overtime making a mountain of fudge and sandwiches.
Chaplain Father William J. O’Brien of Aubury, N.Y., went to London and talked a big store into parting with a good part of its slim toy stock.
Louise Wesemann, left, of La Grange, Ill., and Mary Wahl, of Fairfax, Minn., members of the Women’s Army Corps, paint toys at the Santa Claus workshop attached to an 8th Air Force bomber station in England around, Oct. 22, 1943. The toys will be distributed to British war orphans at American Red Cross parties this Christmas. (AP Photo)
Santa Claus, Captain Raymond Jennison of a U.S. Army armored unit station, distributes gifts to English children around Dec. 15, 1942, somewhere in Southern England. (AP Photo)
There was a flicker of the homesick look in the Santa’s eyes as he handed out the presents because the 235 pounds in the red and white suit belonged to Capt. Raymond Jennison, [who] was thinking about his own three-year old back in Hopkinsville, Ky.
“I guess if you can’t be home with your own this is the next best thing,” a young lieutenant said.
Shoppers look for Christmas gifts and other articles, at London's Petticoat Lane market on Dec. 8, 1940. People still came despite several shops, right, being bombed during the recent "Blitz". (AP Photo)
Men of the Canadian forces making their requests and planning present-buying on Dec. 7, 1940, in London, England. Assistants at the Beaver Club in London have offered to do Christmas shopping for men of the Canadian forces in London, and as a result they are doing a roaring trade. (AP Photo)
The last minute rush for Christmas greeting cards in a department store on Dec. 19, 1941, in London, England. These will probably be some of the last Christmas cards to be sold as the British government’s order restricting the use of paper, prohibits printing cards. (AP Photo)
American soldiers from left: Sgt. Jerry F. Davenport, of Albany, N.Y.; Sgt. Charles E. Burgess, Rochester, N.Y., and Pvt. Samuel H. Abrahamson, of New York City, shopping for Christmas presents in Algiers for the folks back home, examine hand-decorated, hand-sewn leather hassocks in the Post Exchange gift shop, around Dec. 7, 1943. (AP Photo)
Some of the 500 tough, sunburned veterans of the Mediterranean war, arrived at a London railway station on Dec. 2, 1944, for twenty-eight days’ leave. They were the first contingent, of the two thousand that docked in England, to reach London. (AP Photo)
American soldiers and U.S. nurses decorate their Christmas tree on Dec. 13, 1942, somewhere in England. Ping-pong balls play a large part with tinsel and other metallic decorations being in short supply. (AP Photo)
Troops' Christmas Preparations. (British Movietone/AP Archive)
From left to right: Pvt. Walter M. Hammel of N.Y., PFC Thomas P. of Atlanta, Ga.; Cpl. N. Urdang of Brookline, Mass, at a Red Cross Servicemen's club in Algiers during the holiday season, 1943. (AP Photo)
A sailor, his costume made from shorts and old signal flags, makes his rounds on Guadalcanal island, Christmas Day 1942, with the temperature near 90 degrees. He handed out gifts furnished by the Red Cross which included pipes, cards, writing paper and soap. (AP Photo/Pool)
British soldiers engaged in the siege of Bardia, Libya, kneel in prayer in the desert at a sunrise mass on Christmas Day. Their coats are turned up against the chill of the desert air at that hour. (AP Photo)
Members of a British tank crew dig into their Christmas pudding during a rest in the drive on Bardia, Libya. The ingredients of the pudding were army biscuits, prunes, marmalade and rum. (AP Photo)
Three members of a British Tank Crew enjoy a Christmas Day libation during time out in the drive against the Libyan port of Bardia. (AP Photo)
Various clippings of AP stories from WWII. (AP Corporate Archives)
American and British youngsters spoke to their fathers in the armed forces in a three-way New York, Toronto and London Christmas broadcast at a radio station, Dec. 25, 1942 in New York. Joan Levy, age 8, and Marvin Levy, age 13, are pictured as they spoke to their dad, Private Alfred Max Levy who is now with the U.S. Army having transferred from the Canadian Army. (AP Photo)
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, left, speaking from the south portico of the White House, Washington on Dec. 24, 1942, as he delivers his Christmas greetings to the nation. Standing beside him is Brig. Gen. Charles W. Kutz, engineer commissioner of the District of Columbia. In the background is the Washington Monument. (AP Photo)
President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and members of their party leave the White House in Washington on Dec. 25, 1941, for Christmas services at the Foundry Methodist Church. From left to right are Lord Beaverbrook, British Minister of Supply; First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt; the Prime Minister; the President; and the President's, Gen. E. M. Watson. (AP Photo)
Virginia O' Brien, Frances Langford, Judy Garland, Dorothy Lamour, Ginny Simms and Dinah Shore making a recording for the GI's overseas Christmas broadcast, shown in Hollywood on Oct. 30, 1944. (AP Photo)
Men of the fifth Allied army join their chaplain in singing Christmas carols on Christmas day 1943 in Italy. (AP Photo)
The choir on Guadalcanal Island sings on Christmas Day, 1943. Starting at midnight, there were 18 separate services for Catholics, Protestants, and because it was Friday, Jewish services. (AP Photo)
A Christmas sing-song on the mess decks of a warship of the Home Fleet in December 1942. (AP Photo)
Servicemen dance with United Service Organizations (USO) volunteers during the National Catholic Community service's Christmas dance in the Rainbow Room, December 1941, in New York City. (AP Photo)
R.A.F. Cadets training at Terrell, Texas, and co-eds of the east Texas State College, enjoy cups of wassail, at a Christmas party held in honor of the fliers on Dec. 24, 1941. (AP Photo)
Text from “Santa Claus Rides American Tank Bringing Toys to British Children”, by Gladwin Hill, Dec. 15, 1942.
The AP Corporate Archives contributed to this post.