The Royal Family’s incredibly old-fashioned Christmas dinner definitely isn’t for everyone and it features plenty of more unusual dishes.
Whilst many of us are considering how to style a guest bedroom for Christmas and preparing to host our friends and family, the Royal Family’s countdown to Christmas will end with their usual gathering at Sandringham for the festive period. Traditions are hugely important to their seasonal celebrations and that is the same when it comes to the food as well. According to former royal chef Darren McGrady, who worked for the royals for fifteen years, the Royal Family enjoys a particularly unusual spread on Christmas day evening.
After tucking into their Christmas lunch, the Royal Family’s incredibly old-fashioned Christmas dinner is reportedly served at 8:15. And it’s definitely not for everyone, with Darren suggesting that some very unusual meat dishes are on the menu.
Opening up to the Mail on Sunday back in 2017, the former royal chef claimed that the Royal Family sit down to dishes including a stuffed boar’s head for their Christmas Day dinner.
“Served at 8.15pm, and preceded by the requisite aperitif from 7.45pm, it is laid out in the dining room. But there is not a sausage roll or Quality Street in sight,” Darren alleged. “When I was there it was traditional, Old English cuisine: a stuffed boar’s head on platters, ox tongue and boiled and roasted hams, salmon and game.”
Reportedly served alongside these meat-heavy dishes are “potatoes tossed in hollandaise sauce, as well as sliced tomatoes or green leaves. During his time cooking for the royals these side dishes apparently “suffice[d] as an accompaniment” on Christmas Day at Sandringham.
Of course, Darren cooked for the royals until 1997 and so perhaps the Royal Family’s incredibly old-fashioned Christmas dinner has been modernised slightly by now to include more contemporary favourites. According to the BBC, in the Middle Ages a picked boar’s head was supposedly one of the most popular centrepieces at Christmas feasts. Whilst HuffPost reports that a roasted whole boar’s head was apparently a classic English dish at this time of year.
The Royal Family are nothing if not fond of tradition and so whilst the idea of eating a stuffed boar’s head or ox tongue might not be everyone’s idea of a delicious Christmas Day dinner, perhaps they have kept this going after all in honour to tradition. Especially since salmon and ham were supposedly on the menu during Darren’s time as a royal chef, which are generally far more popular at any time of the year and are great alternative options.
Whether or not many fans will be on board with the Royal Family’s incredibly old-fashioned Christmas dinner choice, their dessert selection does sound a lot more universally pleasing. Darren shared that there used to be a small table “laden” with chocolates from Charbonnel et Walker and Bendick’s Bitter Mints.
The former royal chef also revealed that around 4pm the royals reportedly have an equally sweet-focused tea time treat in between their Christmas lunch and dinner.
“There will be Christmas cake, a chocolate yule log, mince pies with brandy butter, scones and more sandwiches,” he said.
This sounds also very traditional like their Christmas Day dinner, but features a lot more items that have remained universally popular like mince pies and Christmas cake. These feature on many people’s festive food must-have lists each year and so it seems the royals enjoy a good mix of more unique and widely-eaten dishes at Christmas.
