King Charles is set to carry on the Christmas traditions of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II. According to reports, Charles and the Royal Family will spend the holidays at Sandringham, the Norfolk estate where the Queen had the family congregate for the festivities. Another tradition Charles will uphold involves opening presents on Christmas Eve, something which dates all the way back to his German heritage.
- King Charles will carry on the tradition of exchanging presents at Sandringham on Christmas Eve.
- The reason for this dates back centuries, and relates to the German heritage of the Royal Family.
- In other royal news, the surprising member of the Royal Family calling for ‘forgiveness’ and ‘family unity’ this Christmas.
While the Royal Family do Christmas like many families – traditional Christmas dinners, going to church, spending time together over Boxing Day and through the holidays – they also have some unusual customs that haven’t quite caught on.
One such tradition which Charles will reportedly continue this year is the exchanging of gifts on Christmas Eve, December 24.
While most other people wake up early on Christmas Day to check if Santa has been, the royals swap gifts the night before in a nod to tradition.
Heiligabend Bescherung is the term for why, but essentially it’s just a German term for the day they swap presents, which is December 24.
The royals have been doing this for nearly two centuries, going back to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
The royals famously swap mostly comical gifts, opting to not go too lavish. In fact, it’s rumored that the funnier the gift, the better. If not comical, practical gifts, like Kate Middleton’s frugal first gift for the Queen, are thought to be popular.
Charles is also known to be something of a thoughtful gift giver to those who work for the family.
Former Royal butler Grant Harrold recounted the Christmases he spent with the family to Slingo.
He said, “I’m pleased to say there were no scrooges. They are all Christmas oriented from what I saw. I used to get gifts from King Charles and he once gave me China cups and beautiful glass tumblers.”
Besides these thoughtful “bits and pieces” Charles would also “give all sorts of things”, in a nod to his sometimes eccentric ways.
Grant explains, “One year I got a tin of salmon. It was funny little things, but maybe something where he’d thought, ‘Oh, Grant may like that.’”
It’s not just the gift swapping on December 24 which can be traced back to the royals’ German ancestry.
The very tradition of Christmas trees in the royal household dates back to George III and his German wife, Queen Charlotte. It was she who introduced a German-themed Christmas back in the early 1800s, which included the introduction of the yew tree (the first royal Christmas tree) to Windsor Castle, in homage to German custom.
In 1848, Queen Victoria cemented the symbol of the Christmas tree with a portrait of the family gathered around their festive fir at Windsor Castle.
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