As the holiday season slowly keeps chugging along and picking up steam, Blogmas continues on! And of course, we turn to history. The history of Christmas is a fascinating area of study. People underestimate it, but it can touch on religious history, political history, economic history, cultural history, and more. And quite frankly, it’s pretty fun to read about and will often win you a trivia contest or two. One of my favourite areas of Christmas is royal Christmas history, as you could guess. So, today, I’m sharing the best royal Christmas history books to get you into the regal and festive spirit!
My one downfall with the royal Christmas history books that I’ve found is that they are all focused on the English/British royals. Not that I don’t enjoy reading about them, but I would also love to read about other royal holiday traditions throughout the centuries. If you do know of any books that touch on royal holiday traditions outside of the UK, please let me know!
And if you are interested in royal history, join me on Twitter for my royal history Twitter chats! Twice a month, we chat about a different royal history topic over Saturday and Sunday- it is a wonderful way to meet other royal history buffs and learn some. The last chat of the year will be on 14/15 December, and we will be chatting about royal Christmas traditions.
A Royal Christmas, Jeremy Archer
A Royal Christmas is a Christmas pudding of a book, full of silver threepenny pieces. Organised thematically, it covers such topics as Christmas and conflict in the 20th century, Christmas pastimes, festive feasts, Christmas and the Commonwealth, and many more, it looks at the many ways in which the Royal Family have celebrated Christmas through the ages.
Jeremy Archer has delved into the royal archives to uncover the personal thoughts of many royals during the Christmas period. What comes over most strongly from Queen Victoria’s journals is the importance of family: the joys they shared, the trials they endured, and the carefully selected gifts they exchanged. Although there is much happiness, tragedy is a common bed-fellow, particularly in earlier times. And conflict is seldom very far away. But this is a celebration – both of an enduring festive season and an extraordinary family.
Archer’s A Royal Christmas is an easy and enjoyable holiday read, especially the royal history lover. He focuses largely on how the royals remembered and recounted Christmas, going to journals, letters, and speeches for first-hand accounts. The book starts with a look at medieval Christmas with the Tudors and Stuarts, as well as the Commonwealth. (Not the current Commonwealth, but rather Oliver Cromwell’s…) We then have an introduction to Queen Charlotte (largely responsible for the tradition of Christmas trees) and the Hanoverians, and then it’s onto the Victorians. The majority of the book features on the Victorians and the Windsors, and is divided up by topic. (I suspect that the focus is due to the surplus of sources from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as the growing prominence of Christmas in the royal family.) Gift giving, feasting, foreign Christmases, and wars are all examined. This is a well researched and fascinating read, and is perfect for the holiday seasons!
A Right Royal Christmas, Hugh Douglas
This anthology begins with a view of royal events during the twelve days of Christmas – revolution, births, marriages, deaths and murder. It shows how the monarchy have contributed towards and celebrated Christmas through the centuries.
This is an interesting look at royal Christmas history. I spotted this randomly being sold secondhand on Amazon, and decided to give it a chance. The English minor in me is happy I did! This anthology looks at royal Christmases mostly through the lens of fictional works, as well as poetry and plays. (There are a few letters and speeches included, too.) If you are looking for a point blank “this happened and then this happened” style book, this isn’t for you. However, if you want to dive into how the royals were viewed by their contemporaries and later generations, this is a fascinating book. I particularly enjoyed T.S. Eliot’s dramatic telling of Thomas Beckett’s Christmastime murder. It may not be a particularly happy holiday moment in royal history, but happened none-the-less. (And a literary approach gives it slightly more colour.) It is all over the place in topic and chronology, but it is still entirely enjoyable!
A Royal Christmas, Louise Cooling
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, King George III’s German-born wife Charlotte gave a Christmas party for children in which she displayed a small tree decorated with lights and sugar ornaments, a custom unknown in Britain at the time. Christmas trees would go on to delight children of the royal family for decades to come, and are now a cornerstone of Christmas throughout the United Kingdom and beyond.
A Royal Christmas is the first official publication to explore the fascinating Christmas traditions of royalty past and present. Drawing on many previously unpublished objects and images from the Collection, this lavishly illustrated book offers insight into the influence and charm of royal festivities.
In this beautiful gift book, expect to see royal Christmas dinner menus and recipes; Queen Victoria’s account of Prince Albert falling through the ice while skating; photographs of Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret performing Aladdin at Windsor’s Christmas pantomime; exquisitely festive jewelry, cards, and gifts; and many more holiday delights. Full of charming anecdotes, potted histories, and glittering photographs, A Royal Christmas is the perfect gift for the season.
Also called A Royal Christmas, Cooling’s book is actually produced by the Royal Collection Trust. The Royal Collection Trust that holds the Queen’s archives, artwork, and more… This was released late in 2018, and has quickly become one of my favourites. Because the RCT published this, Cooling had access to countless sources that we wouldn’t otherwise see. Similar to Archer’s book, it is organised by topic rather than chronological order. It doesn’t quite go as in-depth, but I believe that the illustrations and artwork included are its strength. The RCT holds a staggeringly impressive collection, and this book includes photographs, paintings, and programmes that you would otherwise never see. It is essentially like A QEII-approved, behind-the-scenes look at royal Christmases!
If you want to read about Tudor and Stuart Christmas, visit my post here!
Georgian and Victorian Christmas more your speed? Visit here!
And of course, where would we be without my post on Windsor Christmas?
What are your favourite royal Christmas history books?
Cheers,
The Historian
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