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Detail showing decorated christmas trails on tables
A Royal Christmas

How the Royal Family have celebrated Christmas over the centuries

1986 Christmas Broadcast

HM The Queen with producer Sir David Attenborough as she prepares to deliver her Christmas message©

The 1986 Royal Christmas message was recorded in the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace. In this photograph, Queen Elizabeth II stands with the producer, Sir David Attenborough, in the State Stables. A children’s Christmas party takes place in the Mews every year, and footage of the party provided the backdrop to the queen’s message that year about the importance of childhood and society’s responsibility towards children. She stressed the Christian message of loving one another; not just at Christmas, but in daily life. She concluded the Christmas broadcast by saying: “There are many serious and threatening problems in this country and in the world but they will never be solved until there is peace in our homes and love in our hearts.”


The income from your ticket contributes directly to The Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity. The aims of The Royal Collection Trust are the care and conservation of the Royal Collection, and the promotion of access and enjoyment through exhibitions, publications, loans and educational activities.