This Is How The Royal Family Celebrate Christmas Each Year
Christmas is an exciting and extravagant time of year, but it’s even more over the top if you're in the royal family. We’re talking tiaras, lavish feasts, and glamor galore! Of course, the holiday season may be a little different following the death of Queen Elizabeth. What will Christmas be like without the Queen's annual broadcast? And more importantly, what will it be like without the Queen herself? Christmas will undoubtedly look different for the royals this year, but to be fair, the way they celebrate the holiday has always been far from normal.
Spouses and family only
Apparently, fiancées and friends aren’t traditionally invited to the three-day annual celebration. Even Kate Middleton didn’t get to go before her wedding in 2011. “Only spouses and close family are usually invited,” royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams explained to the Daily Express in December 2017. The family made an exception for Meghan Markle back in the day — but Harry and Meghan probably won't be around for the 2022 celebration.
The gifts are a joke
But what do you get someone who literally has everything for Christmas? Well, the royals actually only buy one another ridiculous gag gifts as a tradition. Diana once allegedly bought Sarah Ferguson a leopard-print bath mat, for instance. And reportedly back when Harry was single, Kate gifted him a “Grow Your Own Girlfriend Kit.” Oh, to be a fly on that wall.
The royals arrive in order
Other royal Christmas traditions are considerably more formal, and they involve that old royal custom: rank. When guests arrive at Sandringham, for instance, they are apparently supposed to do so according to their “place” within the family. Although it's been said that the 2022 celebration will be "less formal" than usual.
There will be outfit changes
In 2017 How to Dress Like a Princess author Claudia Joseph explained it all to Vogue. “For lunch on Christmas Eve, the men wear suits and the women wear smart silk dresses, but they change into black [ties] and glamorous gowns for dinner,” she said. “It’s the one time the women wear their most expensive jewelry and almost all wear tiaras.”
