Spending your first Christmas with your in-laws is always something of a daunting prospect, but at least for most of us, it doesn’t involve learning royal protocol and trying to impress the Queen. When Princess Kate first joined the senior royals at Sandringham for the festive period, she was seriously worried about one particular aspect of it – she admitted a few years later.
While Kate was taking part in a documentary to mark the late Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday back in 2016, she made the revelation about her pre-Christmas jitters ahead of her first royal festive season – and the main issue that worried her was pretty relatable – that she was majorly concerned about what on earth she should get the late Queen as a Christmas gift.
To be fair to Kate, what do you get the woman who has everything – from palaces up and down the country to a collection of racing horses reportedly to be worth a vast sum. The Royal Family is said to eschew expensive or luxurious gifts at Christmas, luckily for any newcomers at a loss like Kate was, instead opting to give each other gag gifts or small tokens.
Kate explained her dilemma: “I can remember being at Sandringham for the first time at Christmas and I was worried what to give the Queen as her Christmas present. I was thinking, ‘Gosh what do I give her?’ And I thought back to perhaps what would I give my own grandparents and I thought I’d make her something—which could have gone horribly wrong—but I decided to make some of my granny’s recipe for chutney, and was slightly worried about it”.
However, Kate need not have worried about the former monarch’s reaction to her homemade gift, because it went down a treat – and ended up being a moment that showed Kate just how “thoughtful” her grandmother-in-law really was.
“I noticed the next day that it was on the table,” Kate explained, “and I think such a simple gesture went such a long way for me, and I’ve noticed since that she’s done that on lots of occasions, and I think it just shows her thoughtfulness really and her care in looking after everybody.”
