While Christmas Eve and Christmas Day usually see the Royal Family enjoy gift-giving, a turkey dinner and trip to church, Boxing Day for some involves donning Barbour jackets, wellies and the loading of guns for the Windsors’ traditional Boxing Day shoot.
Before that though, the Royal Family are said to feast on a big breakfast of sausage, bacon and eggs.
Former royal chef Darren McGrady, who has worked at Sandringham, told OK! magazine there is a “hearty” English breakfast for the men, including devilled kidneys, while the female royals partake of a continental-style morning meal in their bedrooms.
Mr McGrady said the men would then set off for the shoot while the women would arrive later, beating for pheasants in the bushes.
Ken Wharfe, a former royal bodyguard, said Norfolk’s flat, open landscape is the perfect place for shooting.
He added: “It’s a paradise for it. Everything is in place and there is privacy and security. It is one of the great shooting estates with the best managers and gamekeepers.”
In his younger years, King Charles would host shoots at the 20,000 acre Sandringham Estate, following a royal tradition dating back generations.
OK! reported the monarch, who is often feted for his eco-credentials, may now play the role of “hunt leader”, a role his father, Prince Philip occupied.
Animal rights campaigners have criticised the royals for the pastime, with an image of the late Queen Elizabeth II wringing a pheasant’s neck prompting a public outcry in 2000.
Prince George was also photographed with his father, Prince William, on a grouse shoot in 2020, increasing the sense of unease among some.
Princess Kate is also known to have taken part in shoots, as well as Prince Harry, although he is said to have given up the bloodsport under pressure from his wife, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, who reportedly disagrees with it.
Royal expert Duncan Larcombe has told OK! the days of the royal shoot may be over, however, given King Charles’s passion for wildlife and the environment.
He said the days of the royals “blasting birds out of the sky on Boxing Day for the thrill of it” may be numbered.
Mr Larcombe added: “The family are more on-message these days and I think the King will know the public are watching closely.
“For the time being, there will still be shoots, though not on the scale of Prince Philip shooting thousands of birds in a season. He must have been pretty angry that year!”
The royal expert said, however, that with more than 200 people said to be employed on the King’s private Norfolk estate – including gamekeepers and farmers – the monarch will “think carefully” about ending the tradition.
After the royals’ Boxing Day shoot, the Windsors gather for lunch before leaving Christmas at Sandringham House behind for another year.
