It's December 24, 1940 and in the bottom left hand corner of the front page of the Pittsburgh Press, there was this:
The President and Mrs Roosevelt, mindful of the Yuletide blackout in many countries abroad, devote this day before Christmas to traditional rites based on the creed “good will toward mankind.”Mr Roosevelt lights the community Christmas tree and delivers his annual Christmas greetings to the nation at 5:11 p.m.
The Press reported that the greetings would be broadcast on WJAS – tucked between an afternoon drama and music by local bandleader Benny Burton.
This is how Roosevelt started the greetings:
At this Christmastide of 1940 it is well for all humanity to remind itself that while this is in its name a Christian celebration, it is participated in reverently and happily by hundreds of millions of people who are members of other religions, or belong actively to no church at all.
And:
Sometimes we who have lived through the strifes and the hates of a quarter century wonder if this old world of ours has abandoned the ideals of the Brotherhood of Man. Sometimes we ask if contention and anger in our own midst in America are a portent of disunion and disaster. Sometimes we fear that the selfishness of the individual is more and more controlling in our lives.
When we are in those moods it is hard for us to keep from putting our tongues in our cheeks when we say "Merry Christmas"—for we think in thoughts of futility and not of hope. A few people are cynics all of the time; some people are cynics part of the time; but most people keep their faith most of the time.
That is why we must keep on striving for a better and a more happy world.
And then finally:
Let us make this Christmas a merry one for the little children in our midst. For us of maturer years it cannot be merry.But for most of us it can be a Happy Christmas if by happiness we mean that we have done with doubts, that we have set our hearts against fear, that we still believe in the Golden Rule for all mankind, and that by our works, as well as our words, we will strive forward in Faith and in Hope and in Love.
In that spirit I wish a Happy Christmas to all.
And five short/long years after President Roosevelt's
last pre-war Christmas greetings, a different President addressed a very different nation in a very very different world.
The Pittsburgh Press published, in that same lowerleft hand corner of the paper this:
The sweeping, snow-covered south lawn of the White House will serve as a setting today as President Truman leads the nation in the first National community Christmas observance since 1941. Mr. Truman will light the national Christmas tree at 5 p. m. then in a nationally broadcast address, he will voice the nation's hopes and prayers at this first peacetime Christmas season in four years.
This time the speech was broadcast on all of Pittsburgh's radio stations. What followed on KQV was Captain Midnight and Tom Mix. By that point, on WJAS, Benny Burton had evidently been replaced by a juvenile serial named Cimarron Tavern.
Anyway, on that day, after all the death and destruction of the previous half decade, Truman said:
This is the
Christmas that a war-weary world has prayed for through long and
awful years. With peace come joy and gladness. The gloom of the war
years fades as once more we light the National Community Christmas
Tree. We meet in the spirit of the first Christmas, when the midnight
choir sang the hymn of joy: "Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace, good will toward men."
It is, therefore,
fitting for us to remember that the spirit of Christmas is the spirit
of peace, of love, of charity to all men. From the manger of
Bethlehem came a new appeal to the minds and hearts of men: "A
new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another."
In
love, which is the very essence of the message of the Prince of
Peace, the world would find a solution for all its ills. I do not
believe there is one problem in this country or in the world today
which could not be settled if approached through the teaching of the
Sermon on the Mount.
And:
With our enemies vanquished we must gird ourselves for the work that lies ahead. Peace has its victories no less hard won than success at arms. We must not fail or falter. We must strive without ceasing to make real the prophecy of Isaiah: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."
And:
With that message I wish my countrymen a Merry Christmas and joyous days in the New Year.
And yet today in 2023:
At least 68 people were killed by an Israeli strike in central Gaza, health officials said Sunday, while the number of Israeli soldiers killed in combat over the weekend rose to 15.
Associated Press journalists at a nearby hospital watched frantic Palestinians carry the dead, including a baby, and wounded following the strike on the Maghazi refugee camp east of Deir al-Balah. One bloodied young girl looked stunned while her body was checked for broken bones.
The 68 fatalities include at least 12 women and seven children, according to early hospital figures.