The awkward blunder Princess Diana made during her first Christmas as a royal

When it comes to traditional and protocol, the royal family are sticklers for it – even during the festive season.

Without fail, the royals gather every year at Sandringham House to celebrate Christmas, with gifts being exchanged on Christmas Eve at 6pm on the dot in the red drawing room.

While many would assume members of the royal family would go all out for presents, it’s actually entirely the opposite – they are only supposed to give each other joke gifts.

Notable presents include Prince Harry gifting the Queen an ‘ain’t life a bitch’ bath hat, and Kate Middleton gifting Harry a ‘grow-your-own girlfriend’ kit (of course, this was in the pre-Meghan Markle era).

However, for her first Christmas as a royal in 1981, Princess Diana was not aware of this tradition gifting her then sister-in-law Princess Anne a cashmere sweater, according to The Mirror.

What she got in return wasn’t so nice – a loo-roll holder. Lovely.

Diana learnt from her blunder though, gifting Fergie a gorgeous leopard-print bath mat at a future Christmas.

While clearly the presents are meant to be a joke, Prince Charles once received a white leather toilet seat from his sister Anne and ended up loving it.

So much so, the heir to throne now makes sure it comes with him on every overseas royal tour he embarks on. Whatever floats your boat, Charles.

This year marks Meghan Markle’s first Christmas as an official royal, although she attended the family festivities last year too, and luckily was made aware of the joke present tradition.

The Duchess of Sussex reportedly gifted Her Majesty a singing hamster.

“Meghan bought a little hamster that sings with a little rope for Her Majesty,” a royal insider told the Daily Star.

“It was so funny, especially when the corgis tried to take hold of the toy.”

We hope we’ll hear about some more fabulous presents from the royal this year – maybe Charles could get another leather coloured toilet seat.

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