King Charles’s rare exception for Christmas Day goes against his strict rule about “luxury”.
For King Charles and the rest of the Royal Family the festive period is a time full of traditions and after they’ve put on their best winter coats and walked to church on Christmas Day they enjoy a classic Christmas feast. Food is often surrounded by protocols and unique customs for the royals and His Majesty has a strict rule when it comes to lunchtime that might sound quite bizarre.
However, it’s likely King Charles makes a rare exception on Christmas Day in favour of enjoying his dinner with his loved ones. In 2018 King Charles turned 70 and the Royal Family shared 70 facts to mark the occasion. One surprising fact was simply that the monarch “does not eat lunch”.
This was something that The Telegraph’s former royal correspondent Gordon Rayner has also delved into that same year. Praising King Charles’s “tremendous energy”, he went on to remark that the monarch apparently finds the idea of lunch a “luxury”.
“Lunch is seen as a luxury that gets in the way of his work, so he eats a late breakfast and works through,” Gordon claimed. “I found this out the hard way, by going hungry when I started covering royal tours, and watching enviously as his long-suffering staff produced snacks from pockets so they could eat on the go.”
It seems that King Charles’s lunchtime rule means members of his staff have learnt to come to work prepared. Of course, Gordon’s remarks specified that King Charles doesn’t eat lunch when he’s working and Christmas Day is likely a rare occasion where he does eat lunch.
The monarch’s annual Christmas Day address has been pre-recorded for decades and other than walking to church in Sandringham there are no public appearances from the Royal Family on the big day itself. Whilst there is no doubt always some pieces of work for King Charles to do, he is also known to be a fan of tradition.
With this in mind, it’s highly probable that eating the traditional festive lunch with his nearest and dearest is King Charles’s rare exception for Christmas Day. The Royal Family apparently sits down to a very traditional Christmas dinner, with former royal chef Darren McGrady previously confirming that “it was the same meal every year” at Sandringham.
“They're actually boring when it comes to festivities. They didn't do hams or anything, just traditional turkeys," he claimed. “We did three turkeys for the Queen [Queen Elizabeth] and her family in the royal dining room, one for the children's nursery and then more for the 100 or so staff, so everyone had a Christmas lunch.”
However, it’s been suggested that the royals’ Christmas Day breakfast supposedly differed for royal men and women. King Charles and Queen Camilla will possibly eat separately on Christmas morning, according to Darren and whilst the royal men have a full cooked breakfast, apparently the women tend to choose a lighter option.
The former royal chef claimed to the Mail on Sunday that on Christmas Day, the “ladies generally opt for a light breakfast of sliced fruit, half a grapefruit, toast and coffee delivered to their rooms.”
“The male Royals, meanwhile, come downstairs to the dining room for a hearty breakfast at 8.30am with eggs, bacon and mushrooms, kippers and grilled kidneys, to set them up for the 11am church service at St Mary Magdalene,” he added.
There was no mention from Darren of King Charles not enjoying Christmas dinner with his family later on in the day. If King Charles's rare exception is made for Christmas Day then we can totally see why he'd want to ignore it in favour of fully enjoying the special day with his loved ones, including all the fabulous festive food.
