LIKE MOST OF US, the royal family has been doing the same thing at Christmas – including those embarrassing party games – for decades. The children, the cousins, the aunts and uncles, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren and their assorted dogs descend upon Sandringham House for the traditional break that can turn into the most fraught two or three days of the year. That said, there are worse places to be cooped up. Sandringham is a grand house, fully staffed, with a huge garden in an area of outstanding natural beauty, near the Norfolk coast. It’s been in the family since 1862, when Edward VII fell in love with it, and the royals have been celebrating Christmas there for generations. It was where the Queen, then Princess Elizabeth, and her sister, Princess Margaret, spent Christmas as children, when it belonged to their grandparents, George V and Queen Mary. And the format today is very much as it was all those years ago, with the exchange of gifts on Christmas Eve – a hangover from their German heritage – a walk to church on Christmas morning, charades after lunch and a shoot on Boxing Day. And there is always a large jigsaw puzzle on the go.
Possibly the only innovation in the best part of a century is a charity football match that William and Harry initiated a few years ago. It’s played on Christmas Eve between the home team – the estate workers – and the locals. The two princes usually take opposing sides and inevitably there is a lot of banter between them, with William once asking the ref to give his brother a yellow card.
A LOVE OF DOGS
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