Welcome to Douglas Murray’s column, “Things Worth Remembering,” in which he presents great speeches from famous orators we should commit to heart. Scroll down to listen to Douglas reflect on the time Winston Churchill wished America a “Happy Christmas” in 1941.
As we near Christmas, I am reminded of the wonderful, 393-word speech delivered by the inimitable Winston Churchill on Christmas Eve of 1941. He spoke from the South Portico of the White House, in the midst of war.
You may recall that I opened the second year of “Things Worth Remembering” with the eulogy given by Churchill on the occasion of his political rival Neville Chamberlain’s funeral, in November 1940.
I am returning to Churchill now because he’s simply the best English-speaking orator of the last century, and because his words and his sense of moral urgency feel especially necessary, as the multipronged war for Western civilization that we find ourselves in grinds on like an acephalous beast. There have been moments in this civilizational struggle—which extends from the Ukrainian forests to the tunnels of Gaza to the Christmas markets of Europe—when I have wondered whether we would prevail. If only, I’ve thought, we had our own Churchill to lead us.
