Although Christmas is often thought to be a time for family festivities, even Princess Diana wasn’t immune to feeling less than thrilled about spending the holiday period with her royal relatives
When it comes to celebrating Christmas, many of us often dread the annual family gathering associated with the season – and it appears, even the late Princess Diana was also far from fond of spending the festive period with her royal relatives.
According to royal biographer Andrew Morton, the late Princess of Wales “hated” spending Christmas at Sandringham every year – and even recalled how the Princess was even “mortified” upon discovering one tradition held by the family in particular.Morton, who wrote the bestseller Diana: Her True Story, claimed that Diana’s foray into the unusual world of royal festive traditions began during her first Christmas at Sandringham in 1981, five months after she famously tied the knot with her husband then-Prince Charles.
By the time Christmas Day itself arrived, the Princess was already pregnant with her first child Prince William, and despite suffering from severe morning sickness, Diana still took the time to “to buy her new family members thoughtful and expensive gifts,” Vanity Fair reported.
Princess Diana and members of the royal family leave St Mary Magdalene Church after attending the Christmas Day service on December 25, 1985 (
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However, despite her careful and meticulous planning to ensure heartfelt and personal gifts were selected, Diana soon found herself utterly “mortified” after discovering that this was not normal procedure for a royal Christmas – as the royal family preferred to give each other tongue-in-cheek ‘gag’ presents instead!
One example of the unusual tradition came when Princess Diana gifted her sister-in-law Princess Anne a beautiful cashmere sweater, and was in turn rewarded with a toilet roll holder in exchange!
“It was highly fraught,” Princess Diana told Morton. “I know I gave, but I can’t remember being a receiver. Isn’t that awful? I do all the presents, and Charles signs the cards. [It was] terrifying and so disappointing. No boisterous behaviour, lots of tension, silly behaviour, silly jokes that outsiders would find odd, but insiders understood.”
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“I sure was [an outsider],” Diana added.
Despite the annual tradition which she attended for several years with her children, Princess Diana never enjoyed royal Christmases (
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Further corroboration of Diana’s dislike of Christmas with the royals also came from Diana’s long-time hairdresser Richard Dalton, who also claimed that “The princess just hated going to Sandringham for Christmas” in Kitty Kelly’s book The Royals.
“She told me it was freezing cold and dinner had to be over by 3 o’clock. ‘It’s 3 and time to watch me on TV,’ she’d say, imitating you-know-who. The royal family had to watch the Queen’s Christmas message on television. Diana said it was a command performance,” reports PEOPLE.
Things also became more and more fraught as Diana’s marriage to Charles became more strained as the years progressed. Eventually, the couple shared their last Christmas together at Sandringham in December 1991 before formally separating on Dec. 9, 1992.
In a further blow, following her separation, Diana was forced to spend her first Christmas away from her sons Prince William and Prince Harry as they continued to follow the usual royal tradition of gathering at Sandringham alongside the Queen and other senior royals to mark the occasion.
