What does the Royal Family eat on Christmas Day? Sandringham festive food traditions revealed

The royal pets even get their own menu...
1/47
Megan C. Hills24 December 2019

Planning a Christmas meal is always a mission, but former royal chef Darren McGrady has revealed that the royals’ Christmas meals were a literal “military operation.” Between procuring 28 pound turkeys through to having army trucks transport the entire lot, he revealed the mammoth effort that goes into a festive meal at Sandringham.

Speaking to royal reporter Omid Scobie on Yahoo UK’s The Royal Story, McGrady revealed it took “months of planning” and beyond the family, around a hundred members of staff needed to be fed too.

On top of that, slightly different menus were prepared for the royal adults, children and even Queen Elizabeth’s dogs.

Royals at the Church of St Mary Magdalene for Christmas mass 
Getty Images

After procuring “the best ingredients” from top of the line suppliers, he revealed the army were actually called in to help with preparations.

He said, “The day before we went up to Sandringham we would pack all of the equipment into hampers and then the army would arrive and load them all into these big army trucks. It literally was a military operation.”

In the mornings, the men of the Royal Family typically went for a “big, hearty English breakfast” while the ladies had “some sliced fruit, maybe a boiled egg” before their gigantic Christmas lunch.

As for what they actually ate for lunch? McGrady explained, “There was so much food at Sandringham for Christmas – 26/28 pound turkeys. They were so big, you almost had to take the oven doors off!”

Getty Images

“Crispy, crunchy roast potatoes, boars head and foie gras, Christmas puddings and mince pies,” he continued. In previous interviews, McGrady has also added that "salad with shrimp or lobster" was served as an appetiser.

McGrady, who was once personal chef to both Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana, explained that when he was cooking for children including Prince Harry and Prince William, the menu was tweaked slightly. He said, “It really is about making sure the portions are a little smaller for them and using less seasoning, but they pretty much have the same menu as the Royal Family.”

He also revealed that the royal corgis have their own special festive menu, cooked for them by the chefs. Although he didn’t elaborate in this interview, previously he revealed to Hello that a menu would be sent to the kitchen at Sandringham by the estate’s dog caretaker which would “list each day what the dogs were to have.”

He said, “One day it would be beef, the next day chicken, the next day lamb, the next day rabbit and it alternated through those days.”

Prince Harry greeting the public at a Sandringham Christmas church service
Getty Images

McGrady added that they would sometimes “add cabbage on the menu” as the dogs could sometimes be “a little bunged up.” After that, he said the Queen “would feed them herself.”

The Royal Family grows bigger by the day as new members including Prince Louis and Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor are born, adding to the growing list of people who the royal chefs have to cater for.

McGrady explained that while there were roughly 18-20 members of the immediate Royal Family that the kitchens had to prepare a Christmas meal for, he said, “It was the 8 or 10 in the royal nursery, too. The 100 staff. Dressers, housemaids, footmen, chauffeurs.”

Prince Charles meeting Santa
Getty Images

As for what the exhausted chefs did afterwards? McGrady said, “After the meal, the Royal Family would gather and watch the Queen’s speech in the drawing room – and the chefs who had now cooked and fed everyone would sit in the staff dining rooms and watch the Queen’s speech – and as we ate our dinner, we toasted the Queen.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in