How the Royal Family spend Boxing Day - from traditional sport to hearty breakfast

After two days of eating and drinking in lavish style, Boxing Day is when many of the royals get up early, pull on their waxed Barbour jackets and wellington boots, and load their guns for a day of shooting on the 20,000-acre Sandringham estate. Although for many of us the day is about strolling off the excesses, playing games and snuggling in front of the TV, senior members of the family are expected to join the hunt for plump pheasants or grouse.

But before the action commences, the day begins with a bumper breakfast. Former royal chef Darren McGrady, who worked at Sandringham for many Christmases, says: “It was an early, hearty breakfast buffet for the men – with sausage, eggs, bacon and devilled kidneys.

“The royal women would usually have a continental-style tray in their bedrooms instead, because they were still getting ready for the day. Then the men would set off for the shoot and the women would join them later, beating for pheasants in the bushes.”

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Former royal bodyguard Ken Wharfe says the flat, open landscape of Norfolk provided the perfect environment for shooting. “It’s a paradise for it,” he says. “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 the early 20th Century, under Edward VII and George V, Sandringham even had its own time zone, with clocks set half an hour ahead of GMT to provide extra daylight for the shoot.

The hunting tradition stems back generations, and after inheriting a passion for it from his parents, King Charles would regularly host shooting parties on the Sandringham estate during his student days. He may now have assumed Prince Philip’s former role of “hunt leader”, although he is unlikely to try to match his father’s kill in 1993, when he apparently struck 10,000 pheasants during a seven-week stay at Sandringham.

The pastime angers animal rights campaigners, and a photograph of the late Queen wringing a pheasant’s neck during a shoot in 2000 led to headlines around the world, before resulting in stricter privacy rules on the estate. Shoots now take place on more isolated areas of farmland and marsh, which are not overlooked by public roads or footpaths.

As a keen environmentalist, many have wondered if the King will bring an end to the traditional shoot. Royal expert Duncan Larcombe told OK!, “The days of the royals blasting birds out of the sky on Boxing Day for the thrill of it may be numbered.

“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!”

Still, with more than 200 people said to be employed on the estate, including gamekeepers and farmers, Duncan adds, “Employment in rural areas is a big thing for Charles, so that’s one factor he will think carefully about.”

Unease over the family’s long history of participating in blood sports increased when Prince George was pictured at a grouse shoot with his father William in 2020.

The Princess of Wales has also been photographed on shooting expeditions, and having hunted grouse and pheasant for years, she reportedly owns a 20-bore shotgun.

A royal source has called Kate a “keen markswoman” who has become “a really good shot”, while in 2016, her parents Michael and Carole Middleton gave the royals a run for their money when they held their own Boxing Day shoot near their Berkshire mansion.

But while William and younger brother Prince Harry both began shooting at a young age, their mother Diana, the former Princess of Wales, hated them taking part and once told them: “I shall now call you both the ‘Killer Wales’.”

According to royal biographer Ingrid Seward, Diana even told the brothers, “Remember, there’s always someone in a high-rise flat who doesn’t want to see you shoot Bambi.”

Her well-documented aversion to hunting was also dramatised in the 2021 film Spencer, when her character – played by actress Kristen Stewart – interrupted a pheasant hunt which the royals were taking part in on Boxing Day.

Unlike his older brother, it seems that Harry has now quit shooting for good. His wife Meghan, a fierce opponent of “unnecessary cruelty to animals”, is believed to have persuaded him to give up the sport and even sell his precious handmade hunting rifles for a reported £50,000 before they moved to California.

“We’re led to believe that Harry’s love of shooting has somewhat diminished since he met Meghan, and we haven’t seen him on a single shoot since then,” says Duncan.

If the royals tire of firing their guns, walking and equestrianism are also on the agenda. In 2022, the King was jubilant after his horse, Steal A March, won a Boxing Day race at Wincanton in Somerset, marking his first horseracing triumph since he ascended the throne upon his mother’s death in September of that year.

With all that energy expended, mid-morning snacks are served to tide the family over until lunch. Former chef Darren’s go-to nibbles would include fried slices of leftover Christmas pudding, handily wrapped in wax paper.

To fend off the winter chill, warming drinks are served, with servants often laying a fire in a wood cabin.

When the morning’s outdoor pursuits conclude, lunch is dished up in one of the estate lodges. Darren recalls, “We’d serve up hearty food like beef bourguignon, mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts, followed by apple pie and custard. It was food we said would warm the pipes, because it’s so cold out there.”

Later, instead of drinks and an evening of fun and games, the Christmas festivities typically come to a hasty close, with family members loading up their cars and heading home.

Clearly, the royal Boxing Day experience is not for the faint-hearted, but its long-standing customs seem likely to endure for many years to come.