How the Uks Royal Family Celebrates the Festive Season
Each Christmas the British Royal Family gathers together to celebrate the festive season. The focal point for these celebrations is the Queen’s private Norfolk estate,Sandringham. It is here, on Christmas Eve, and the festivities begin.
During the afternoon, each person lays out their gifts on white linen covered trestle tables in White Drawing Room, where a twenty-foot fir tree, taken from the estate, has been decorated by the Queen. The family comes together for afternoon tea at around 5pm, before the presents are opened, following the German tradition. After the present opening, the family retires to dress for dinner. They reconvene in the Saloon for cocktails, where gin and tonics and dry martinis are served.
Christmas Eve dinner is served at 8.30pm, and eaten by candlelight. It is a black tie affair. The table is laden with Christmas flowers, picked fresh that day from the Sandringham nurseries. The family enjoy a sumptuous banquet before the royal women adjourn at around 10pm, and Prince Philip serves port or brandy to the men.
On Christmas morning each member of the royal family awakes to find a Christmas stocking at the foot of their bed, filled with fruit and small gifts. After enjoying a full English breakfast they attend an 11am Christmas morning church service at St Mary Magdalene, the Sandringham Estate church. The family are greeted by crowds residents of the estate when they arrive.
After church the family return to Sandringham, where they sit down to a traditional Christmas lunch, which is served at around 1pm. Lunch is, of course, turkey; a hand-reared free range bird from the estate, served with all the trimmings. At 3pm the family watch the Queen’s television Christmas Broadcast on BBC1.
Later that afternoon the Queen takes her corgis out for a walk, while other family members take some gentle outdoor exercise to work off their lunch. The evening is spent playing traditional parlour games, such as charades, and watching the television.
On Boxing Day Prince Philip organises a pheasant shoot. The Duchess of Cambridge has been taking shooting lessons from Philip’s private ghillie, ahead of her first Christmas with the Royals this year, although she won’t actually take part in the shoot itself. Tradition dictates that ladies do not hold guns during a shoot.
The Royal Family make Sandringham their official base until Febuary, but soon after Boxing Day the guests begin to drift off, back to public life and royal engagements, having recharged their batteries and enjoyed a few precious days away from the public gaze with their loved ones.
