Queen Elizabeth absolutely loved it when something went wrong during her precisely scheduled public engagements, so it's no wonder that one incident at Sandringham became the talk of the Royal Family for years to come. Christmas at Sandringham House might run like "clockwork," but former royal butler Paul Burrell says that every so often, a mishap occurred, and it was these moments that became the most memorable.
Speaking exclusively to Marie Claire on behalf of Casino.org, Burrell—who worked for both Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth over his royal career—describes one "disaster" when a staff member quite literally set himself on fire during dinner.
Explaining the scene, the former butler says, "Christmas lunch would reach its grand finale, the lights around the table would be dimmed, and the pudding would be paraded in with great ceremony." He added that brandy would be heated over a flame, and "when it reached the right temperature, it would be poured over the pudding, and the palace steward would set it alight."
However, one year, "there was just a little too much brandy." Burrell says that when the steward lit the pudding, "the flames shot up and quite literally singed the palace steward’s eyebrows clean off. He was briefly on fire, and the entire table collapsed with laughter."
Instead of jumping up to help, the Royal Family couldn't stop laughing, Burrell says, continuing, "They didn’t rush in to rescue him, because it was the most unusual thing that had happened all Christmas, and for them it was hilarious and talked about throughout Christmas."
The former butler didn't elaborate on who was present at the table that year, but he served Princess Diana as a butler from 1987 through her 1997 death, and prior to that, worked as a footman for Queen Elizabeth.
"They’ve got a very peculiar sense of humor, and seeing something like that was just priceless…priceless for everyone," he adds of the Royal Family. "And they never forgot it. They never forgot the year the palace steward set his own eyebrows alight."
Burrell tells Marie Claire that such "disasters or surprises" made Christmas more interesting for the family. "It was only when something unusual happened that they could really laugh and enjoy themselves," he shares, adding that "everything followed the same rhythm, every year" otherwise.
With all of the strict rules and traditions, it's no wonder that some singed eyebrows caused at least a brief moment of comic relief. Princess Diana famously hated the extremely structured routine at Sandringham, with Burrell sharing, "She tried so hard to fit in, but she didn’t like it. She felt trapped."
