Many Royal Christmas traditions we can think of are actually much younger than expected. But some are older than we were told, too. In
his book A Royal Christmas published by Elliott & Thompson, Jeremy
Archer traces the influence the British Royal family had on the way
Christmas is celebrated in the United Kingdom. And in other countries other Royal families are leading in defining Christmas traditions.
Jeremy Archers book contains no big revelations, but it collects all the snippets of information found in various books and biographies into a coherent Royal Christmas narrative. Christmas traditions in Britain look quite German as they do in other countries outside Germany. The reason lies with the Royal families mostly being German (United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg) and importing German Princesses in marriages and with them all kinds of tradition.
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| Crown Princess Victoria, Princess Estelle, Prince Daniel |
Jeremy Archers book contains no big revelations, but it collects all the snippets of information found in various books and biographies into a coherent Royal Christmas narrative. Christmas traditions in Britain look quite German as they do in other countries outside Germany. The reason lies with the Royal families mostly being German (United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg) and importing German Princesses in marriages and with them all kinds of tradition.
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha is credited with
introducing German Christmas traditions to England on his marriage to
Queen Victoria. That is wrong. He should be credited with being the
first professional public relations manager for the Firm. He
didn't bring these traditions with him, they were already in place. He made them public, though, to bring the monarchy into everyone's home.
The Norwegian Royal family retires over Christmas into a private cocoon. But prior to that, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit will take part in the unveiling of the Oslo Christmas tree on Trafalgar square. The gifted conifer from Norway is a tradition that started after World War II as a sign of friendship and thanks from Norway to the United Kingdom.
The British Royal family will spend Christmas at Sandringham in Norfolk. This year will see the start of a new tradition (or the breach with tradition, depending on which way you want to look at it). Carole and Michael Middleton will be in the party of illustrious guests gathering there. Punters and bookies expect Prince Harry to pop the question to his latest flame Cressida Bonas. I doubt it, though. Cressida Bonas has not (yet) been confirmed as a guest on one hand and one just doesn't propose on Christmas on the other hand. On top of all that, Prince Harry has yet to walk back from the South-pole while a yes from Cressida Bonas is far from certain.
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