24 December 2023 , 10:48
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King Charles is set to keep alive the late Queen's considerate Christmas tradition she made a point of doing every year.
Her Majesty would always gift around 1,500 members of staff, from those in the Palaces to those in the Palace police and Court Post Office – a Christmas pudding each year. This was a tradition that both her father, King George VI and her grandfather, George V, did before her.
The royal family's website reads: "Continuing the tradition from her father, King George VI and her grandfather, George V – The Queen [Elizabeth II] also gives Christmas puddings to her staff.
"About 1500 Christmas puddings paid for by The Queen (through the Privy Purse) are distributed to staff throughout the Palaces, staff in the Court Post Office and Palace police. Each pudding is accompanied by a greeting card from The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh."
It's not the only tradition that has carried on with one of the Queen's favourite pre-Christmas traditions by holding a huge lunch party for his extended family.
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Each year, the late monarch would host up to 70 members of her family at Buckingham Palace for a festive party before heading off to Sandringham for the big day. The King and Queen Camilla carried on with the tradition - although the bash was held at Windsor Castle instead of Buckingham Palace - and attendees are likely to include the Prince and Princess of Wales as well as Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.
The royals also participate in another fun tradition where they open gifts in a 'free-for-all. On Christmas Eve every year, the royals gather inside Sandringham Estate's red drawing room at 6pm following afternoon tea. Choosing to do the Christmas ritual on December 24 rather than 25, the Windsors are keeping in line with their German ancestry.
One of the best descriptions of the royals' Christmas procedure came in Prince Harry's explosive memoir, Spare. The prince said: "The whole family gathered to open gifts on Christmas Eve, as always, a German tradition that survived the anglicizing of the family surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor.
"We were at Sandringham in a big room with a long table covered with white cloth and white name cards. By custom, at the start of the night, each of us located our place and stood before our mound of presents. Then suddenly, everyone began opening at the same time. A free-for-all, with scores of family members talking at once and pulling at bows and tearing at wrapping paper."
When they get to the room, they find their presents have been laid out in front of them. But despite the "mound" of presents, they are usually all cheeky, and cheap, ones. According to reports, the cheaper and cheekier the better.
There was an additional rule when Prince Philip was alive that no one should open them until he gave the go-ahead as he supervised the free-for-all. In the same memoir, Harry wrote how one year his great-aunt Princess Margaret gifted him a fish biro. In 2020, Meghan gave her royal husband an ornament of his grandma, the Queen.