ROYAL CHRISTMAS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 17, 21 January 1938, Page 7

ROYAL CHRISTMAS

SANDRINGHAM HOLIDAY

A QUIET PARTY

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, December 29.

The Royal Family spent their Christmas holiday quietly at Sandringham with a private gathering of their relations. Two Royal anniversaries, the 36th birthday of the Duchess of Gloucester, and the first birthday "of her niece, Princess Alexandra of Kent, made Christmas Day a special occasion, with decorated birthday cakes as well as the traditional roast Norfolk turkey and plum pudding.

A little before 3 p.m. the King went alone to his study on the ground floor of Sandringham House for his Christmas broadcast to the Empire. Two microphones in pedestals of Australian walnut stood on the desk in front of him, and in a third pedestal a red warning light glowed as soon as the microphones were "alive." The room was connected, through land lines leading from the Court post office, with the whole British-speaking world.

The Queen, Queen Mary, Princess Elizabeth, and Princess Margaret listened round a loud-speaker installed in another part of the house. Later in the afternoon, when the King had rejoined his family, he heard his speech played back to him on records.

Soon after the' broadcast, the King led the way to the Christmas tree for the distribution of presents.

There was a thick fog when the King and Queen, Queen Mary, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, the Earl and Countess of Athlone, and Lady May Cambridge motored to Sandringham Church for the Christmas service, but nearly 6000 people assembled to see the Royal party return. The King, seeing the large crowd, decided to walk back. His decision was greeted with great applause. He'waved to the people who lined the roadway. Then the party walked across the park.

The King and Queen spent Thursday, the first day of their Christmas holiday, visiting various parts of the Sandringham estate, but the Queen and Queen Mary also found time for a final shopping expedition to King's Lynn, about six miles away. On Friday, the Royal Family attended the distribution of nearly four.tons of beef to estate workers, pensioners, and tenants. Shoots were arranged for the latter part of the holiday, and for the enjoyment of the Princesses four ponie? were specially sent from Windsor.