The King's Christmas message (or The Queen's Christmas message in a queen's reign), formally as His Majesty's Most Gracious Speech, and informally as the Royal Christmas message is a broadcast made by the sovereign of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms to the Commonwealth of Nations each year at Christmas. The tradition began in 1932 with a radio broadcast by King George V via the British Broadcasting Corporation's Empire Service. The message is broadcast on television, radio, and the Internet via various providers. It is usually broadcast at 15:00 GMT on Christmas Day. Unlike some other speeches, such as the King's Speech at the State Opening of Parliament which is written by the government, the Christmas speech is a personal message written by the monarch with input from spouses and direct advisors.
History
The idea for a Christmas message from the sovereign to the British Empire was first proposed by the founding director-general of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), John Reith, in 1922 when he approached King George V about making a short broadcast on the newly created radio service. The King declined, however, believing that radio was mainly an entertainment. Reith approached the King again ten years later, in 1932, as a way to inaugurate the Empire Service (now the World Service) and the King finally agreed after being encouraged to do so by Queen Mary and Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald. That year, King George V read the first Royal Christmas message, which was scripted by Rudyard Kipling; the King was originally hesitant about using the relatively untested medium of radio, but was reassured after a summertime visit to the BBC and agreed to carry out the concept and read the speech from a temporary studio set up at Sandringham House. The 1934 Christmas broadcast was introduced from Ilmington Manor by 65-year-old Walton Handy, a local shepherd, with carols from the church choir and the bells ringing from the town church, and reached an estimated 20 million people in Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
While his brother, King Edward VIII, abdicated just before his first Christmas as king, King George VI continued his father's Christmas broadcasts; it was in his 1939 reading delivered in the opening stages of the Second World War that he uttered the famous lines: "I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year, 'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.' And he replied, 'Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way.'"
For many years, the King's speech came at the end of an hour-long broadcast of greeting from various parts of the British Empire and Commonwealth which typically included interviews with ordinary people of many occupations such as an innkeeper in an English village, a miner in South Africa, a lifeguard in Australia, and a Royal Marine Commando - Sergeant Bulpett serving in Malaya, speaking from Singapore (1950) with the King's speech serving as a bond tying the Commonwealth together.
King George VI's daughter and successor, Queen Elizabeth II, delivered her first Christmas message from her study at Sandringham House, at 3:07 PM on 25 December 1952, approximately ten months after her father's death. Five years later, the message was broadcast on television for the first time. It has been an annual television broadcast every year since, with the exception of 1959 and 1963 when the Queen was heavily pregnant; and 1969: that year, no message was given because a special documentary film, Royal Family, had been produced during the summer in connection with the investiture of the Prince of Wales. It was therefore decided not to do a broadcast at Christmas, but the Queen issued a written message instead.
Until 1996, the Christmas broadcast was always produced by the BBC; the monopoly was ended when it was announced that, from 1997, the message would be produced and broadcast alternately by the BBC and its main rival, Independent Television News (ITN), with a biennial rotation. It was reported by The Daily Telegraph that this decision was made after the BBC decided to screen an interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, on its current affairs programme Panorama. This was denied by Buckingham Palace which said the new arrangements "reflect the composition of the television and radio industries today". Beginning in 2011, Sky News was added to the rotation.
Sky News recorded the Queen's Christmas message for Christmas 2012, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee year, and for the first (and only) time it was recorded in 3D. Buckingham Palace was reported to have stated: "We wanted to do something a bit different and special in this Jubilee year, so doing it for the first time in 3D seemed a good thing, technology wise, to do."
Under the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, the themes and direction of the speeches were decided by the Queen and the text was largely written by the Queen herself, sometimes with assistance from her husband Prince Philip and her staff. In the later years of her reign, the speeches became more personal and religious in tone. Her son and successor, King Charles III, reportedly writes the script of his Christmas messages himself without input from staff.
Traditionally, the message begins with the British national anthem God Save the King (or Queen), (except for 1968, 1986–2000, 2002, and 2007 in which it ended the message).
Broadcast
The message typically combines a chronicle of that year's major events, with specific focus on the Commonwealth of Nations, and with the sovereign's own personal milestones and feelings on Christmas. It is one of the few instances when the sovereign speaks publicly without advice from any ministers of the Crown in any of the monarch's realms. Planning for each year's address begins months earlier, when the monarch establishes a theme and appropriate archival footage is collected and assembled; the actual speech is recorded a few days prior to Christmas.
Timing:
On the internet, as in the United Kingdom, broadcast of the King's Christmas message is embargoed until 15:00 GMT on 25 December. New Zealand is the first country in the Commonwealth to broadcast the message over the airwaves, at 18:06 local time (5:06 am GMT) by Radio New Zealand on RNZ National, then again at 18:50 by Television New Zealand on TVNZ1. In Australia, the message is broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation at 15:20 local time (5:20 am to 8:20 am GMT, depending on the time zone). Commercial stations Channel 7, Channel 9 and Network 10 then air the message at different times following the ABC broadcast. In Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts the message generally at noon local time on CBC Television (3:30 pm to 8 pm GMT depending on the time zone), and at 11:50 am local time on CBC Radio One and CBC Music. Some private stations such as CTV also carry the speech. Outside of the Commonwealth, C-SPAN in the United States airs the King's message at times that vary depending on the network's schedule. No American radio station airs the broadcast, although some areas bordering Canada can receive it via the CBC.
Yearsbroadcast MonarchAddresses 1932–1935 George V4 1936–1951George VI14 1952–2021Elizabeth II69 2022—presentCharles III4
Messages
George V Year Notes Producedby 1932 Written by Rudyard Kipling, the speech touched on the advance of technology that permitted the King to deliver an intimate message to all parts of the world, as well as mentioning the need for work towards peace and counselling listeners to aim for "prosperity without self-seeking." BBC 1933 In his second Christmas address, George V expressed his gratitude to his subjects for their Christmas greetings and reassured listeners that "the past year has shown much progress towards world recovery [from the Great Depression] and the setting in order of our respective communities" and spoke of his "hope and confidence" for the future. He also spoke of the improvements in worldwide communications brought by technology and the benefits that brings in dealing with problems in a timely fashion. 1934 King George V spoke of the British Empire as being "bound to me and to one another by a spirit of one great family" and of how he and Queen Mary were moved by the way "this spirit was manifested" at the marriage that year of his son, the Duke of Kent and Princess Marina. He added, in reference to the ongoing economic and international political crises of the decade, that he wished this spirit within the Empire would deepen and widen in response to a restless world adding that "The clouds are lifting, but we have still our own anxieties to meet. I am convinced that if we meet them in the spirit of one family we shall overcome them." He also referred to the importance of the emerging Dominions within the Empire asserting that "Through them the family has become a commonwealth of free nations, and they have carried into their homes the memories and traditions of the Mother Country." He also addressed the growing demands for Indian independence by assuring the people of British India "of my constant care, and I desire that they will all fully realise and value their own place in the unity of the one family." 1935 The speech mentioned the King's 25th anniversary of his accession to the throne and his place as a personal link between his peoples, as well as the marriage of his son, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and the death of his sister, Princess Victoria. He also referred to his desire for peace and goodwill among all nations saying this will also bring a solution to the Great Depression economic troubles of the period. The King offered his sympathy to all those in the Empire suffering personal distress and also called for hope and cheer united by the bonds of service which would give people the resoluteness needed to overcome their difficulties.
Edward VIII No message as he abdicated prior to what would have been his first Christmas on the throne.
George VI 1930s