Prince George, Charlotte and Louis will reportedly have to pass a test before being allowed to eat Christmas dinner with King Charles and Queen Camilla.
When it comes to the festive season the Royal Family have plenty of special traditions they stick to, ranging from celebrating at Sandringham to exchanging presents on Christmas Eve. Since 2016 the Prince and Princess of Wales and their kids have spent the festive period in Norfolk. However, despite being King Charles’s grandchildren it seems Prince George, Charlotte and Louis are still not guaranteed to eat their Christmas dinner with His Majesty and Queen Camilla this year.
Former royal chef Darren McGrady has claimed that traditionally the children eat separately at occasions like this. The Wales kids must reportedly have mastered certain important behavioural skills before eating with the adults.
As per The Mirror, he previously alleged that the children “aren’t allowed to sit with the adults until they have learned the art of polite conversation”. Not only that, he went on to claim that the royal kids not only ate separately from the adults, but did so in a different room.
He declared, "The children always ate in the nursery until they were old enough to conduct themselves properly at the dining table.”
Eating separately at big family occasions is supposedly the norm and it’s not known whether any of the late Queen Elizabeth’s great-grandchildren have been allowed to eat with the King, Queen and the other adults yet. Prince George is now 10 and as he’s second in the royal line of succession he’s started to be introduced gently to public appearances.
At these occasions Prince George has shown impeccable behaviour and “polite conversation” skills so it’s possible he might be approaching an age where he could pass the behavioural test. However his younger siblings, especially Prince Louis who’s known for his cheeky antics and expressions at royal events, are perhaps still a little too young.
They might also prefer to eat together with the other royal children for the social element too. Seeing Prince George, Charlotte and Louis all together with his cousins’ children is one of the highlights of the festive season for Prince William.
He revealed this in 2021 during an appearance on Radio Marsden when he declared, “When I see my children meet up with my cousins’ children, they will have a wonderful time playing together. It’s very special. So I look forward to that a lot.”
If former royal chef Darren’s suggestion is still the case and royal children need to master “polite conversation” and behave “properly” before they can eat with the adults then at some point the oldest royal kids would make the move to the dining room. However, until then there’s probably a lot of fun to be had at gatherings together even if they don’t get to eat with King Charles, Queen Camilla and their own parents at Christmas.