The Christmas food tradition the royals wisely avoid after several family disasters

When it comes to Christmas, the Royal Family have plenty of traditions that have gone nowhere over the years - including opening their gifts on Christmas Eve and spending the festive season at Sandringham House. However, there's one they apparently don't follow, according to former royal chef Darren McGrady.

He’s shared some fascinating insight into the dining customs of the royals in the past, and knows better than most what the royals eat on Christmas Day. Interestingly, whilst they do enjoy a yuletide favourite - Christmas pudding - they miss one thing out.

One classic tradition that the royals "never did" was the placing of a coin in a Christmas pudding, even though the custom is thought to have royal origins.

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Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria, is often credited with popularising this tradition. It involves placing a silver sixpence inside a Christmas Pudding. When enjoying the dessert, whoever found the coin in their portion would be said to receive good luck, wealth and happiness for the year ahead.

Prince Albert might have brought the tradition over from Germany, where similar traditions of hiding tokens in festive cakes were already a thing. Although the Royal Family do pay tribute to their German heritage by opening gifts on 24th December, they avoid this pudding tradition now to avoid anyone choking.

Darren once explained to the BBC, "No, we never did that! Ever since the Queen Mother choked on a fish bone that time… we were too nervous to do that."

As Darren referenced, Queen Elizabeth's mum, the Queen Mother, was taken to hospital and needed emergency surgery on multiple occasions after choking. In 1993, a fish bone got stuck in her throat at Balmoral and she was flown to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary where she underwent an operation to have it removed.

Years earlier, in November 1982, the Queen Mother needed another emergency surgery at the King Edward VII Hospital after a fish bone got lodged in her throat while in Windsor. A keen fisher, she reacted cheerfully afterwards, reportedly saying, "The salmon have got their own back."

In light of these incidents, it perhaps makes sense that the chefs wouldn't want to risk putting a coin in the royals' Christmas puddings. However, whilst they were cautious about this, in general, the festive season with the royals was actually a very relaxed time for the chefs, according to Darren.

He shared, "We worked alternate Christmases. You would be at Sandringham for two weeks. So, if you wanted to celebrate with your family, you’d have to celebrate with them before or after because usually you’d be up there from December 22 until after New Year."

"But they always made it special for you. The staff would have lots to drink and there would be loads of food and chocolate - and you’d have the full turkey roast, so you weren’t really missing out because you were enjoying the celebration too," Darren added.