12 British Royal Christmas Traditions That Will Surprise You

She's one of the hardest-working 89-year-olds in the world, so perhaps unsurprisingly, the Queen actually starts signing her Christmas cards during her Summer holidays. She will write on a stack of around 800 cards during her annual stay at Balmoral, signing off "Elizabeth R." (for "regina," the Latin word for queen) to politicians and heads of state, "Elizabeth" to friends, and her childhood nickname of "Lilibet" to her cousins.

Her staff receive gift vouchers and Christmas puddings, and she has Christmas trees from the Sandringham Estate sent to local schools and churches.

The Queen, of course, has access to the royal train, but she prefers to travel down to the Sandringham Estate ahead of the Christmas festivities on a regularly scheduled service, along with members of the public. A single off-peak first-class ticket currently costs just £54.90 (around $83 US), but she will commandeer a whole carriage for her party. She usually arrives at the house between Dec. 17 and 20 to oversee the last of the preparations, and the rest of the family descends on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas Eve, the family gathers for afternoon tea in the White Drawing Room at Sandringham, and former royal chef Darren McGrady has revealed that one of the family's favorite tea items is the "jam penny" — sandwiches cut into circles the size of an old English penny. He would also make scones the size of a 50-pence piece, although the Queen would crumble them up and feed them to her corgis.

Believe it or not, the Sandringham house is considered "small" compared to other royal residences, so when there is a higher number of guests, they will often sleep in the staff quarters. The guest list used to include wider family members such as the Queen's nieces and nephews, but now that her own grandchildren have started families, the festivities usually just include her direct offspring — the maximum number that can be seated at the same table for Christmas lunch is 24 adults, and children are seated in the nursery. Other guests, like the Middletons, may be invited for the annual Boxing Day shoot.

When Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie were young and their parents were divorced, their mother, Sarah Ferguson, would often stay in Wood Farm (a cottage on the estate) so they could see her on Christmas Day. To incorporate the whole group en masse, the Queen hosts a family lunch at Buckingham Palace earlier in December, where the number of guests is closer to 50.

After the public church services and dress-coded sit-down meals have been taken care of, the royal family might just gather in the evening to watch a movie, just like other families around the world (that is, if other families watch movies while surrounded by a grisly-looking selection of wall-mounted swords and knives). The ballroom at Sandringham is often used for more formal occasions, but there is a screen installed on one of the walls that can be pulled down and have a film projected onto it. It just so happens that this room is home to a large collection of bladed weapons that were gifted to Queen Victoria's son Edward during his tour of India and the Far East.

Twenty years ago, close family members would not have been permitted to spend Christmas away from Sandringham, so Princess Diana never celebrated the day with the Spencers after her marriage to Prince Charles. However, times they are a-changin', as it seems William and Kate are alternating Christmases with each side of the family. Their first holiday as a married couple in 2011 was spent at Sandringham, but the following year, when Kate was pregnant with Prince George, she and William stayed with her family in Berkshire. In 2014, they attended church with the rest of the family but hosted lunch for their parents at their own home in Anmer Hall.