Princess Diana 'Hated' Christmas at Sandringham with Royal Family, Calling It ‘Terrifying and So Disappointing’

Mar. 15, 2025

Anwar Hussein/Getty

Princess Diana“hated” spending Christmas at Sandringham with the royal family, according to her biographer Andrew Morton.

Morton, who wrote the bestsellerDiana: Her True Story, said her disdain for the traditional royal Christmas celebrations began as early as her first Sandringham Christmas in 1981, five months after she married the futureKing Charleson July 29, 1981. By Christmas of that year, the Princess of Wales was already pregnant with their first child,Prince William, who would be born six months later on June 21, 1982. Despite suffering from morning sickness, Princess Diana still took the time “to buy her new family members thoughtful and expensive gifts,”Vanity Fairreported.

Members of the royal family, including Princess Diana, Prince William and Prince Philip, at Sandringham.Tim Graham Photo Library/Getty Images

She was “mortified” on Christmas, though, when she discovered that members of the royal family only gave one another gag gifts. (After all, what can one really get the Queen?)Case in point— she gave her sister-in-lawPrincess Annea cashmere sweater and got a toilet paper holder in return.

“It was highly fraught,” Princess Diana told Morton. “I know I gave, but I can’t remember being a receiver. Isn’t that awful? I do all the presents, and Charles signs the cards. [It was] terrifying and so disappointing. No boisterous behavior, lots of tension, silly behavior, silly jokes that outsiders would find odd, but insiders understood.”

“I sure was [an outsider],” Diana added.

Aerial view of the Sandringham estate in a photo taken on May 1, 2003.Andrew Parsons - PA Images/PA Images/Getty

As the Prince and Princess of Wales’ marriage became more and more fraught with tension, “I used to get calls from her on Christmas Eve and she was alone,” a friend of Diana’s told Tina Brown for her bookThe Diana Chronicles. “Whenever we talked it was all about tactics. What to do next.”

Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana in ‘Spencer’.

Diana’s “highly fraught” Sandringham Christmas experiences were dramatized in the 2021 filmSpencer, whereKristen Stewartplays the royal over the course of three days at Sandringham in 1991, “when an anguished Diana resolved to end her broken marriage,” PEOPLE previously reported.

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A dramatization though it is, it’s worth noting that 1991 was the last Christmas Charles and Diana spent at Sandringham before separating. On Dec. 9, 1992, the Prince and Princess of Wales formally separated, and Diana spent her first Christmas away from sons Prince William andPrince Harryjust weeks later.

PEOPLE’s ‘Christmas at the Palace’.

For more on Princess Diana’s holidays with the royal family, pick up PEOPLE’s Special Edition:Christmas at the Palace: A Royal Family Album.

source: people.com