Here's a delightful royal Christmas tale that Netflix should incorporate into its next princess holiday movie: every year, the British royal family opens gag gift presents (the cheaper the better, The Mirror reports) at 6 p.m. at Sandringham's red drawing room on Christmas Eve. And Kate Middleton, polished and serious in her day-to-day work, gave Prince Harry a particularly hilarious gift one year, back when he was still a bachelor.
The Mirror called it one of the most memorable gifts ever exchanged in the entire family—and for good reason: the Duchess of Cambridge gave Harry a grow your own girlfriend kit. It's entirely fitting, given Harry and Kate's history—before Harry met Meghan Markle in summer 2016, Kate was a match-maker for the prince. Royal reporter Katie Nicholl wrote that Kate regularly organised 'blind dates' for him.
Grow a girlfriend, £2.14
With Meghan herself, Harry wanted Kate's approval, Nicholl reported. 'Harry and Kate are very close, she’s been like a mentor to him and he wanted her seal of approval,' a source told her.
Harry also made The Mirror's shortlist of the most memorable gifts ever exchanged in the family: One year, he gave the Queen an ‘Ain’t life a bitch’ bath hat. If only the royal Twitter documented Her Majesty's reaction to that...
There's more to the ritual than it just being a gag gift exchange. The family has a special procedure for placing gifts in the room, too. They creep down to the red drawing room in the afternoon, The Mirror detailed, to 'secretly place' their presents on trestle tables marked off by one family member.
At gift opening time, the royals wait for Prince Philip to give them permission to start opening the gifts. Maybe Kensington Palace should strongly consider doing an Instagram Live of their opening presents this year?
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she's not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
