{"id":16488,"date":"2025-06-18T13:04:07","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T13:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/used82.com\/?p=16488"},"modified":"2025-06-18T13:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T13:04:07","slug":"king-charles-furious-over-canceled-christmas-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/used82.com\/?p=16488","title":{"rendered":"King Charles \u2018furious\u2019 over canceled Christmas tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Royal Family has any number of traditions going back centuries.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Queen Elizabeth II held firmly to the majority of them, and it looked as though King Charles was set to the same (despite wanting to modernize the monarchy).<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of them centers around Christmas, which has always been the same for the royals. Now, though, it appears as though one key tradition could go missing. That, according to an expert, has left King Charles furious, and there\u2019s nothing he can do about it.<\/p>\n

The members of the Royal Family have a hectic schedule all year round. Sure, they get some weeks off during the summer, but it\u2019s during Christmas that they get to be completely cut off from the public eye and enjoy each other\u2019s company.<\/p>\n

Just as millions of people worldwide, the Royal Family has their own Christmas traditions that go back many years. While some have changed over the decades, others have remained. Moreover, it might come as a surprise that a couple royal traditions aren\u2019t really \u201croyal\u201d at all, but rather similar to any other family\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The royals have always spent the Christmas holidays at their Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.\u00a0Queen Elizabeth<\/a>\u00a0would travel there by train, before sending out approximately 750 Christmas cards every year to her family, friends, and other members of the royal household and government officials, a tradition that King\u00a0Charles<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Prince William<\/a>\u00a0have continued.<\/p>\n

Some years ago, Darren McGrady, the former personal chef to Queen Elizabeth II,\u00a0Princess Diana<\/a>, as well as Prince William and\u00a0Prince Harry<\/a>, gave royal fans an insight into how Christmas is celebrated at Sandringham, particularly in terms of the food they eat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time the royals congregate on Christmas Eve is for afternoon tea at 4 pm, often in the ornate Sandringham saloon under its exquisitely painted ceiling,\u201d McGrady wrote in the Daily Mail in 2016. \u201cIt involves a large cake, usually a ginger cake or honey and cream sponge; a fruit cake would clash with the following day\u2019s Christmas cake. Small cakes and scones feature alongside finger sandwiches (crusts off, served in squares) filled with ham and English mustard, Sage Derby cheese, and Branston Pickle or Coronation chicken, with a pot of Earl Grey tea.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Royal Christmas<\/h2>\n

\u201cThen, in a German tradition called Heiligabend Bescherung, they will open their presents. The gifts, jokey and inexpensive rather than lavish, are piled on trestle tables alongside name tags. This is one of the few times that the children will be permitted to join the adults.\u201d<\/p>\n

After gifts are exchanged on Christmas morning, the royals attend a church service at St Mary Magdalene. Many years ago, the family members drove to church, but Queen Elizabeth enjoyed the walk so much that it became the new normal.<\/p>\n

The walkabout on Christmas Day has become a beloved royal tradition, which is the only \u201cduty\u201d the family members engage in during the holidays. Outside the church, royal fans can engage with the royals and hand the children gifts. Last year,\u00a0Prince George<\/a>,\u00a0Princess Charlotte<\/a>, and\u00a0Prince Louis<\/a>\u00a0could hardly carry all the teddy bears and candy well-wishers handed to them.<\/p>\n

Darren McGrady continued: \u201cAfter church, that\u2019s when they have a big lunch that includes a salad with shrimp or lobster, and a roasted turkey, and all of your traditional side dishes like parsnips, carrots, Brussels sprouts, and Christmas pudding with brandy butter for dessert. They stick with the same meal year after year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfterward, they all go their own way before coming together again for afternoon tea and traditional Christmas fruitcake, then they gather again in the evening, where a buffet dinner with 15-20 different items awaits them. It\u2019s always a buffet with the chefs at the table carving. They don\u2019t do appetizers on Christmas like many do here in the U.S. Instead, appetizers and canapes are reserved for New Year\u2019s Eve.\u201d<\/p>\n

King Charles and the royals exchange \u2018fun gifts\u2019<\/h2>\n

The Royal Family has a formal dinner on Christmas Eve, often including Norfolk shrimp and lamb. In his memoir,\u00a0Spare<\/em>, Prince Harry also revealed some details about how Christmas at Sandringham is celebrated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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, stood before our mound of presents,\u201d the now estranged prince wrote. \u201cThen 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though King Charles,\u00a0Queen Camilla<\/a>, Prince William, and\u00a0Kate Middleton<\/a>\u00a0might seem quite strict in public, the Royal Family members also have a very playful side. As for Christmas, the royals are reported to have one fun tradition. Besides handing each other \u201cordinary\u201d gifts, they also exchange gifts that are intended to provoke laughter.<\/p>\n

Over the years, several \u201cgag presents\u201d have been handed to the family members. In 2016, Kate reportedly gave Harry a \u201cGrow Your Own Girlfriend\u201d kit before he met\u00a0Meghan<\/a>, and William once gave the now-late queen a pair of personalized slippers with her face.<\/p>\n

While it appears as if all the Royal Family does at Christmas is eat, sit, and open gifts, there is a more active tradition as well. The pheasant shoot on Boxing Day has been a beloved tradition for years within the Royal Family, although it has also received criticism from animal welfare groups.<\/p>\n

King Charles \u2018furious\u2019 over possibly having to cancel annual Boxing Day pheasant shoot<\/h2>\n

On that note, it appears as if King Charles and the other fans of the pheasant shoot interested within the royal circle might have to get themselves a new Christmas hobby.<\/p>\n

The Sun reports that King Charles has been told that he might be forced to cancel his annual holiday shoot this year as there aren\u2019t enough birds. King Charles reportedly had the opportunity to import birds from elsewhere for the traditional hobby but opposed it.<\/p>\n

Charles is known to be a big supporter of wildlife, and as other bird populations have declined at the estate, so have the pheasants. A\u00a0source told\u00a0The Sun<\/a>\u00a0that King Charles was livid about the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a total cock-up. No\u00a0birds, no bang, just red faces,\u201d the source said. \u201cThe King wasn\u2019t having it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moreover, a long-serving gamekeeper who is responsible for managing the bird population at Sandringham is said to have been let go.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s just say he\u2019s well and truly plucked off,\u201d the source added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Royal Family has any number of traditions going back centuries. Queen Elizabeth II held…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":131,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16488"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16491,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16488\/revisions\/16491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}