Christmas with the British Royals: This is how William, Kate and Co celebrate.

On the weekend before the first Advent, “Stir-Up Sunday” traditionally takes place in the United Kingdom – the day on which the dough for Christmas pudding is mixed at home. Usually every family member wants to swing the whisk because it means you can make a wish. This old custom from Queen Victoria’s time is also maintained in the country’s first family: Prince William and the three children will certainly have been busy stirring things in the Adelaide Cottage under the guidance of mother Kate. You could see the fact that Prince George has known how to do it for a long time live on YouTube in 2019.

Another important tradition that the British royal family has in common with us Germans at Christmas is the family gift-giving under a decorated Christmas tree on Christmas Eve (in contrast to middle-class Brits, who only open their presents on Christmas Day in the morning). Most believe that it was Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the prince consort of Queen Victoria, who brought the custom from his homeland in 1840. The German prince’s son did a lot to popularize various atmospheric Christmas traditions, for example sending festively designed Christmas cards. However, he was not the pioneer when it came to Christmas trees in the salon. This honor goes to Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III, who is also of German descent. She had the first decorated tree put up in the Queen’s Lodge in Windsor over 200 years ago to make Christmas as festive as she had been used to since her childhood in Mecklenburg.

The Windsors maintain other charitable traditions during Advent. For several years now, in December, Queen Camilla has opened the magnificent salons in her and King Charles’ private residence, Clarence House, to a group of chronically ill children in order to decorate a large tree with them in a festive atmosphere and to delight the children with small gifts. Meanwhile, stepdaughter-in-law Kate is inviting everyone to Advent singing in Westminster Abbey on December 6th for the fourth year in a row. Not only members of the royal family are coming, but especially deserving volunteers from various charities and people who have been particularly committed to their surroundings over the past year – or those who have simply had a difficult time personally. After all, Christmas is also a festival of charity, where those who are better off do something good for other people who are not so well off.

Since the Princess of Wales herself experienced a very stressful year due to her cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment, this time the event is expressly dedicated to everyone who also had to suffer strokes of fate. The celebratory event will be recorded and broadcast on British television on Christmas Eve.

As in the time of the late Queen, the actual festivities of the British royal family take place at the Sandringham estate in Norfolk. Also this year Charles III. travel there with his wife Camilla a few days before Christmas to oversee the final holiday preparations. The group of guests usually consists of around 30 people. These include royals and, more recently, selected patchwork members of the royal family, like the Middletons, Kate’s parents and siblings, or Camilla’s children and grandchildren from her first marriage to Andrew Parker Bowles. They all arrive at midday on December 24th in a strict order depending on their place in the line of succession.

Because even though it’s a family celebration, everything goes exactly according to protocol. All guests arrive with multiple suitcases for the three days as they have to change clothes several times a day: for afternoon tea, gift giving, formal dinners, and the traditional Boxing Day pheasant hunt. Therefore, upon arrival at Sandringham, everyone will receive a detailed schedule listing the events and associated dress code.

However, heir to the throne William and his wife Kate only partially celebrate with their children in the king’s residence and also live away from home. Because her country estate, Anmer Hall, is just a few minutes’ drive away, on the same property. This year there will almost be a Sandringham competition event there: the Middleton clan is spending the festival in Anmer Hall with Kate’s parents and her siblings and their partners and children, and the Wales family is busy commuting.

On Christmas Eve at 4pm, the festive party gathers for the traditional high tea to refresh themselves with cakes, scones, sandwiches and Earl Gray tea in the White Drawing Room, where a large Norfolk spruce stands, freshly felled in Sandringham’s woods. The royal offspring can finish decorating them first.

Then everyone goes to the Red Salon to open the presents. There, gifts for each guest are piled up on several white-covered folding tables. By the way, the British royals only give each other small, often funny things; expensive luxury gifts are frowned upon. During the 70 years of her reign, Elizabeth II consciously stuck to the country’s customary gift-giving on Christmas Eve because the highest day of the festival, December 25th, is not supposed to be about consumption, but rather about the contemplative and interpersonal aspects: going to church with short contact Villagers and royal fans who have arrived along the way, then a family lunch with self-shot game and flambéed Christmas pudding for dessert, and later watching the royals together Christmas speech on television. The second and final holiday is dedicated to pheasant hunting; guests’ participation is encouraged but not mandatory. Then the Windsors’ Christmas ends.

Even in these calorie-conscious times, is an old tradition still maintained that was introduced by Sandringham’s first royal landlord, Edward VII? Back in the late 19th century, every guest was weighed on a large scale in the hall when they arrived, and then again when they left, to prove to the host in kilos and grams that they had thoroughly enjoyed the party.