Following a questionable candidate selection process, the unionist Whites outnumbered the Greens, who were in favour of preserving Montenegrin statehood.

Other participants in the uprising fled to the Kingdom of Italy, meanwhile some retreated to the mountains and continued guerrilla resistance under the banner of the Montenegrin Army in exile, which lasted until 1929.

Multiple historians acknowledge that a majority of Montenegrins supported the unification with other Southern Slavs on a federal basis after the World War I.

[2] Historian Ivo Banac suggested that the Greens enjoyed support from a larger proportion of the population but were comparably poorly organised, indecisive, and politically divided.

They were met at Vranićke Njive by Vučinić, where fighting would have probably broken out, had the youth of Podgorica, Piperi and Kuči not simultaneously reached his troops from behind.

[11] The town's youth organized a council where Dr Niko Martinović was elected president, and Marko Kavaja, later screenwriter, secretary.

[12] Plamenac disbanded most of his troops in the evening of 3 January, and proceeded to his native village of Boljevići with around 60 men, who planned to march on Cetinje the following day.

On 4 January, Andrija Radović stopped in Virpazar while returning from Shkodër, where he held a speech in front of the Crmnica locals.

Drašković considers this speech to have acted to the detriment of the White cause, primarily because it enraged the locals who held Ilija Plamenac in high regard.

He states in his letters that Montenegro had been "sold for Judas' silver" and that while being the "torch of Serb freedom", it was occupied by "brotherly Šumadijans who replaces the Austro-Hungarians".

Todor Božović, Captain Jovan Vuksanović and Podgorica Assembly MP Nikola Kovačević–Mizara proceeded to Rvaši accompanied by 5-6 other members of the youth.

The rest set up camp near Carev Laz and were led by Captain Radojica Damjanović and flag-bearer Nikola Dragović.

[13] In the morning of 4 January, while the groups were negotiating, the youth decided to push forward contrary to the command of Todor Božović.

During 2 January, leader of the Lješanska national guard Lieutenant Radoje Ćetković reached Tivat and returned with around 2,000 rifles and ample ammunition.

[15] The following day, on 3 January, a delegation headed by Brigade Generals Milutin Vukotić and Jovo Bećir went to negotiate with the rebel leaders at their headquarters in the village of Bajice.

Other than the capture of serdar Vukotić and some gendarmes encountering a minor roadblock on their way to the villages of Kosijeri and Jabuka, no fighting took place on that day.

[15] Jailed in Bajice, serdar Janko Vukotić wrote to General Milutinović in the morning of 5 January, pleading him to allow the rebels to enter Cetinje without a struggle, while securing the area around his command with Serbian troops and the area between the Zetski Dom theater, the hospital and the barracks with troops under the command of vojvoda Stevo Vukotić.

Around 6 A.M., a list of demands written by Captain Krsto Popović the previous day was delivered to Milutinović, asking for the termination of resolutions of the Podgorica Assembly.

Milutinović was more confident in his ability to hold Cetinje, as a load of arms and ammunition had arrived from Tivat the previous evening.

Milutinović held a meeting with the Executive Committee in the afternoon during which Divisional General Mitar Martinović suggested accepting the rebels' terms.

Milutinović proceeded with his defense, ignoring the Committee's stance, and put Prince Michael's godfather Captain Božo Novaković in command of the volunteer troops.

[15] In the evening of 5 January, an artillery unit from Zelenika armed with two cannons and led by Commander Ljubodrag Janković tried to reach Cetinje.

[15] On 6 January 1919, around 250 Serbian troops and 850 volunteers from nearby Montenegrin tribes fought a formation of approximately 1,500 to 2,000 rebel Greens in Cetinje.

[16] As a result of the Podgorica Assembly, King Nicholas was exiled to the Kingdom of Italy, from which the uprising enjoyed substantial support.

Furlong reported to The New York Times in an interview published on June 15, 1919, that the electors in the Podgorica Assembly acted as carpetbaggers did in the United States.

The commission also concluded from interviewing Greens held as prisoners that the uprising had been "caused by agents of King Nicholas I and supported by some emissaries from Italy.

In World War II, one of the earliest leaders of the Greens, Sekula Drljević, invited the Italian occupation of Montenegro and collaborated with the Independent State of Croatia in order to break away from Yugoslavia.

Since Montenegro declared independence from Serbia in 2006, the Christmas Uprising has been memorialized on polar opposite ends of the Montenegrin historical consciousness.

[5] On 7 January 2008, on the 90th anniversary of the uprising, Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Đukanović revealed a memorial statue for the Greens who were killed in the insurrection.