00:00and former butler to king charles uh the fad and queen camilla when they were prince of wales and
00:05duchess of como what was fun for myself working for the royal family and learning a lot about their
00:13traditions was the fact that they do things religiously a set way year after year after year
00:22and i think those traditions may um in the future may change but at the moment as far as i'm aware
00:28they're still the same traditions that queen elizabeth followed her father followed her
00:33grandfather followed uh certainly going back is earliest to the term queen victorian prince albert
00:39if not even earlier and a lot of the traditions are actually to do with uh community the queen
00:46victoria's uh ancestry which was obviously german and a lot of their traditions come from uh german
00:53traditions which is something that they're off um obviously you know in the past that was where
00:57their ancestors were from and they like to follow a lot of those traditions as well as having the
01:03modern aspects to christmas for the younger royals they still follow those and that's something i
01:09thought was quite fun that they they they're quite strict about those traditions as of now they're
01:15still strict about them and as i said it's i'm very aware that the king follows those and when you're
01:20probably thinking what kind of traditions am i referring to i'm not talking about the the times
01:25that obviously they'll go to the church or the traditional services i'm talking about the the
01:29things that the christmas tree even the putting the christmas trees up and uh as we've seen the
01:34christmas trees getting decorated certainly at windsor castle is a fantastic piece of footage of them
01:39putting the tree together and these uh kind of traditions go back to uh queen of dawn prince albert who
01:45were accredited to well originally were credited to bring the christmas tree uh to our home and also having
01:52christmas presents on christmas eve so traditionally these trestle tables and then obviously clothed and
02:00christmas-fied and then they would give gifts on christmas eve and that is the tradition that's
02:06continued to this very day where they still give those uh gifts the only difference with those gifts
02:13is that uh famously and it's been obviously well documented that those gifts are now from being uh sentimental
02:20and obviously uh precious things and that and into kind of uh jokey and funny gifts where i believe
02:28that now the the more sensible gifts are now given on christmas days so it's allowed them to keep that
02:34old tradition and have a bit of fun with it while having an afternoon tea yeah i remember the king would
02:40see things and he might say to one of the team whether it be one of us or avala or somebody um you know do you
02:47mind and the next time you're out and about can you get because let's be realistic it's easier for
02:51myself or avala or um that that's the kind of true you probably ask to go and get something say from
03:00a department store or a high street store uh normally with a royal warrant i quickly add uh it's easy for
03:06us to go in there than for him to go in but on saying that on saying that i do understand that queen camilla
03:14has been spotted christmas shopping in the past so i think you'll find that royal ladies do tend to go
03:20out themselves where sometimes uh it's very typical isn't it where sometimes the men pass it on to
03:25somebody else to do which i think a lot of men do regardless don't they let alone royals um so that
03:31is what i think um is something that as i know queen camilla is a very keen shopper and as i say you
03:38do spot out and about was it not last year she was in fort mason's for something and she was going
03:43around getting presents and things so this is what they do and it's the same with catherine and but i
03:48think the younger royals actually in fairness to the prince of wales that are more likely to pop in um
03:55to a shop and risk the fact of maybe getting spotted but i remember principal was very good
04:01and when he used to go out and about and going incognito with a baseball cap or a pair of shades or
04:06something so it wasn't that obvious where i don't really see the king with a baseball cap and a pair
04:12of shades with the greatest of respect i just don't see him doing that so it's easier for him to then
04:18say to one of the team to do that so it's 50 50 what i'm trying to say some of them do it themselves
04:23some of them uh ask one of the the team members to go and do it on the bath or even another family
04:29member uh to do it on their bath um the christmas dinner was um so it was interesting and i know
04:36this because the reason i know about the christmas dinner is because one of my friends one of my
04:41friends uh was the queen chef and was telling me about the christmas dinner and it sounded and what
04:46they would do is obviously so the queen the late queen had quite a strict set of things that she would
04:52do it and i think the king does the same because the king is quite religious and the queen was
04:57religious and the queen famous who'd go to church first thing in the morning not the one that we all
05:02see her go to should go even earlier for a private um a private service and then should return home and
05:09have obviously breakfast as the rest of the royal family um would do because remember the church just
05:15quite just you could just walk across well not well you could just walk across but it wasn't far from
05:20sanded them to get to that's where you see them walking because it's just remember just across the
05:24the lawn um and the bread obviously they'd have their breakfast and then after the breakfast they're
05:29all finally get changed then go to church come back from church they'll then all be offered a drink
05:35um when they get back and then obviously then they'll have uh i believe a three course lunch and it's all
05:44um it's a bit like what we have it's it's it's certainly turkey um is is definitely on on the
05:50the menu the chef i spoke to told me that they would also offer um i think it was goose and believe
05:58it or not boar's head but this is years ago i don't know if that's still on the menu but that's what
06:03they used to have so the point was they'd have a selection of kind of things that would be offered
06:07and obviously the starter and a traditional christmas pudding uh which we saw the queen
06:13doing with little queen elizabeth set with little george back in the day um and then they would have
06:20their lunch then obviously you know you're getting to half two and you you know two half two so then
06:26you're getting near the speech obviously going to do the speech as the famous christmas carol once in
06:32royal david city reminds us i was made to believe that the royal family do watch it and i was also
06:41given the information that all everybody was made aware of that the queen would go and watch in a
06:44separate room i was told that as well now as for the king i don't see him going into a separate room
06:53to watch it i think most likely that they will watch it and whoever's in the room at the time will all
07:01watch it together
