Christmas truce in 1914, World War I. Artwork for a newspaper report on the unofficial Christmas ceasefires that occurred in 1914 in the trenches on the Western Front during World War I. Here, a German soldier is shown opening the spontaneous truce by approaching the British lines with a small Christmas tree. The following year, such truces were banned by the generals on both sides. After a news embargo was lifted, the reporting on the 1914 truces was generally positive in the British press. This report appeared in the 9 January 1915 issue of 'The Illustrated London News'. The artwork is by British war artist and correspondent Frederic Villiers (1851-1922).