Royal family goes all out for Christmas at Windsor Castle
The Royal Family don’t shy away from a chance to celebrate Christmas and have released their annual gallery of stunning holiday decorations at Windsor Castle.
2019’s Christmas at the castle is truly a sight to behold, and one of the main features includes a 20-food Nordmann Fir, which is sourced from the nearby Windsor Great Park.
The tree sits in St George’s Hall, filled with hundreds of ornaments and just a few metres down is a slightly smaller 15-foot fir which was placed in the Crimson Drawing Room.
This year has a historical theme, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s births.
In the castle’s Octagon Dining Room is a number of gifts the couple gave to each other for Christmas.
Famously both Queen Victoria and her husband have a hand in a number of Christmas traditions we know and celebrate today.
Thanks to her German heritage, the Queen’s mother brought yew trees for the holidays as gifts, however it was the couple who made having a decorated tree in your home a trend that would be followed hundreds of years later.
In 1948, Prince Albert sent decorated trees to nearby schools and army barracks.
It was a particular engraving, featuring the royal family gathered around a Christmas tree, that really made the trend take off.
It seemed to be a holiday the royal family were infatuated by, according to Royal Collection curator Kathryn Jones.
She told the BBC that "Queen Victoria and Prince Albert brought the tree into Windsor Castle on Christmas Eve and they would decorate it themselves.
"They would light the candles and put gingerbread on the tree and the children would be brought in."
While the royal family might not celebrate Christmas at Windsor Castle in the year 2019 as Queen Elizabeth famously prefers to spend her holidays at Sandringham – this year’s décor shows visitors how Victoria and Albert used to live.
Scroll through the gallery to see this year’s Christmas decorations at Windsor Castle.