The royal family's special yuletide meal is actually very different than you might expect, as Mike Tindall previously revealed the staff have the day off—so they have to prepare it themselves!
- Mike Tindall revealed that the royal family's glam dinner is actually on Christmas Eve.
- The meal on Christmas day is a pre-prepared cold buffet!
- In other royal news, Kate Middleton's Christmas Day outfits—all the Duchess of Cambridge's most stunning festive looks from Christmases past
You might expect the royal family's Christmas dinner to be a silver service affair, with piping hot dishes and smartly dressed butlers serving the family a feast of several courses. Well, according to Mike Tindall, Christmas day dinner at Sandringham House is actually cold—and they even serve themselves.
Serving yourself at Christmas isn't actually that big a deal but most people used to the UK's not so sunny winter climate would probably prefer a nice piping hot dish!
Last year, Mike discussed the family's Christmas dinner while appearing on JOE UK's House of Rugby podcast, after being asked what the royal family gets up to on December 25.
Mike said, "Yeah it is good. So Christmas Day is a little more quiet because it’s actually a cold buffet because they give everyone the day off, and their big day is Christmas Eve."
This lines up with the Queen's Christmas gift tradition and the family's inclination to do most of their grander events on December 24—a tradition that pays tribute to the royal family's German heritage.
Their dinner, yummy and hot as it is, doesn't have UK traditional items like Christmas crackers and even though it's all about kids and family, the Queen forbids George and Charlotte from sitting with their parents at Christmas lunch.
Mike explained, "This is the other one, the family lunch, there must be about 70 of us there. There are seven tables and then the kiddies have their own little one in a different room."
He added, "I was on Prince Charles' table. It was lovely, really good."
The Queen is expected to skip the majority of her Christmas traditions, as part of another precaution against the UK's rising Covid rates.
Buckingham Palace confirmed on Monday that Her Majesty's plans to host the Royal Family at Sandringham House for the festive season have been canceled, marking her second holiday in a row away from the Norfolk country estate. The disappointing news comes just a few days after the Queen canceled her Christmas lunch, amid concerns over the surge of the Omicron variant.
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