A few weeks after I had written last week's article on things we don't need (war, famine, pestilence, annoying people, mosquitos), I came upon  a letter my mother's cousin, Bud, sent to her in January, 1943. I knew that he had written today's article for me: 

"There was a strange unreality about the holidays this year. Only for a brief moment did I feel that deep, wordless contentment - so much a part of Christmases past. It was in church on Christmas morning. With that moment came one of those rare flashes of insight and the sudden conviction that we would be sitting in that church on Christmas morning in a world at peace again. Wars, floods, pestilence, and the income tax will come and go as they have in ages past, but there will always be a refuge in church on Christmas morning - with the transfigured singing of a choir distressingly out of tune on other church days of the year."

Here are some excellent books on Christmases during the two world wars:

Christmas in the trenches / McCutcheon, John. E MCC

A Christmas tapestry / Polacco, Patricia. E POL 

I'll be home for Christmas: the spirit of Christmas during World War II /Spain, Tom, ed.   940.548 SPA