The war is over but no one’s home for Christmas yet. It must have been depressing but it sounds like things turned out well. As well as could be expected anyway:
“Christmas was a day that the majority looked forward to with dread but it turned out to be not quite so bad as they had feared, for the “9x3x4’s” arrived from home, and the regimental celebration helped the day along. On Christmas Eve the companies were formed and marched by their First Sergeants to the flats near the river, where a table for each company was set with gifts of chocolate, cigarettes, gum and other articles for each man.
“These were given out by harassed Supply Sergeants, and the companies then broke and formed before the stage on which three human reproductions of Saint Nicholas smiled benevolently on the audience. Christmas trees, decorated with tinsel and electric lights flanked the stage and beneath one of these the regimental band rendered tunes to which the crowd sang. Their songs turned to cheers and then silence, however, when four real American women, in the uniform of the Army Nurse Corps, appeared and sang several Christmas songs which met with stentorian approval. The commanding Officer then spoke briefly to the regiment and after a snake dance which spoke well for the spirits of the men, the crowd dwindled and except for the holiday on the following day, another Christmas drifted by into the past.”
– A Short History of the 301st Engineers
Jay in the Great War 