King Charles shakes up royal Christmas – from new guests to banned food

23 December 2023 , 09:23

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The royal family's Christmas will have King Charles' stamp on it this year (Image: Getty Images)

The Royal Family are going to be served up a new style of Christmas now that King Charles is on the throne, with many traditions going out with the used wrapping paper.

Traditionally the royals celebrate the big day at Sandringham with the senior members of the family from King Charles to Prince Louis all seen attending church in the morning. Prince William and the Princess of Wales are regulars alongside Princess Anne, Prince Edward, Princess Beatrice and Eugenie.

This year, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will miss out on the celebrations following a strained year of royal relations in the wake of his bombshell memoir and the couple's Netflix series.

Charles is planning to do things differently this year from the guestlist to the food and the first thing that's going to be banned is Foie Gras – duck liver which is made by force feeding the animals to fatten their livers. It is considered a cruel practice by most animal rights activists and there isa campaign to have the delicacy banned. In previous years, the Royal Family were said to have enjoyed the delicacy together on Christmas Day, with former royal chef Darren McGrady telling Hello! that Harrods gave them "an entire Foie Gras en croute" for their Christmas buffet every year.

Foie gras is banned from the royal residences (PA Archive/Press Association Images)

But, as is well known, the King backs many animal rights causes and sustainable living, so that particular dish is no longer on the menu in any of the palaces and will be nowhere near Sandringham, where the royal family flock to celebrate the festive period. The King is now hosting his second Christmas at the Norfolk estate, following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth in September 2022.

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And while Charles will be making sure his beloved mother's influence will still be felt by the family, he is making sure that his stamp is firmly on this important family gathering. Well known for his preference for organic produce the Royal Family’s traditional Christmas dinner is expected to be made using only that produce.

And it could be that the ingredients for this opulent meal are all home-grown, as Charles took over the running of the Sandringham estate in 2017 and has aimed to make it fully organic. There could also be less meat and fish served up as the King now limits the amount he eats.

At a UN climate summit in 2021, he said in a speech: "I haven’t eaten meat and fish on two days a week and I don’t eat dairy products on one day a week.” And another tradition, dating from the Victorian era, and believed to have been brought over to Britain by Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria is placing a coin into the Christmas pudding.

That is now banned from the Royal Family’s Christmas dinner, even though it is believed that whoever gets it in their portion will receive good luck in the year to come. Mr McGrady told the BBC: "No, we never did that! Ever since the Queen Mother choked on a fish bone that time… we were too nervous to do that."

It will be a first truly family Christmas for Queen Camilla (AFP via Getty Images)

And then there is the case of who makes the invite list, with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle expected to spend Christmas in the US the festivities will look a little different to previous years. This year for the first time Queen Camilla's children and grandchildren will be part of the royal party. Although Charles and Camilla have been married since 2005, in previous years her family members did not join in the festivities at Sandringham as they are not members of the royal household.

The new Queen has two children, Laura Lopes and Tom Parker-Bowls and five grandchildren named Lola, Eliza, Freddy, Gus and Louis and this is sure to be a special Christmas for her with them present. But, the Royal Family Christmas rules dictate that young children such as Prince Louis have to eat their dinner in a different room.

Mr McGrady previously said: "The children always ate in the nursery until they were old enough to conduct themselves properly at the dining table. So for the Queen, there was never a case of putting a high chair at the table with a little baby squealing and throwing food. It was Victorian. The children's place was in the nursery and Nanny would take care of them. It's your modern-day Downton Abbey."

Paul Donald