Queen Elizabeth’s annual Christmas Day escape happened for the most relatable reason each festive season.
For many people the festive period means spending time with your nearest and dearest, whether that’s in the form of hosting them at home or meeting up with them wrapped up warm in your best winter coat. The late Queen Elizabeth regularly upheld her hosting tradition of having both the immediate and extended Royal Family come to stay at Sandringham for the festive period. However, according to former royal butler Paul Burrell, there was one part of Christmas Day itself when Her Majesty used to escape for a short while.
Queen Elizabeth’s annual Christmas Day escape happened for a reason many people will be able to relate to - though it was nothing to do with the number of people or business of the day. Instead Paul claimed that the monarch didn’t like watching herself giving her Christmas address.
Opening up on behalf of Spin Genie, Paul, who worked for the Royal Family for 21 years overall, explained what Christmas traditions are important on Christmas Day. He suggested that whilst the rest of the royals would tune in at 3pm to watch Queen Elizabeth’s pre-recorded Christmas Day speech on TV, she wasn’t interested in joining them.
“During the Queen’s speech the Queen would say, ‘No, I’m not going to sit and watch it’ and she would take the dogs out while the rest of the family would watch,” he claimed.
Although watching this speech on Christmas afternoon is a tradition in many households - including her own - Queen Elizabeth’s annual Christmas Day escape could be seen as very understandable. Many people will likely be able to relate to not wanting to watch yourself on screen or hearing your own voice played back to them.
Whether or not this was the exact reason Queen Elizabeth apparently didn’t like to watch her own Christmas speech remains to be seen. It certainly makes sense as a reason and even if it was more that she was already very familiar with its content, this is equally relatable. Few people might want to listen back to something they’d personally recorded only a few weeks earlier.
The Queen’s corgis were also incredibly important to her so she perhaps also enjoyed getting the opportunity to take them out and spend some more time with them. Since her passing King Charles has continued the long-standing tradition of the Christmas Day address and in his first as monarch, he paid sweet tribute to his beloved mother.
"Christmas is a particularly poignant time for all of us who have lost loved ones. We feel their absence at every familiar turn of the season and remember them in each cherished tradition,” he declared. "In the much-loved carol O Little Town Of Bethlehem we sing of how 'in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light'. My mother's belief in the power of that light was an essential part of her faith in God, but also her faith in people and it is one which I share with my whole heart.”
King Charles’s family will probably sit down at Sandringham at 3pm to listen to his festive address this Christmas Day too. Who knows if he’ll join them or follow Queen Elizabeth’s example of stepping out for a short time. Either way, fans watching at home will no doubt be interested to hear what King Charles will reflect on in this year’s Christmas message.
