King Charles is breaking royal tradition this year.
Reigning monarchs and families across the country have been watching a yearly broadcast on Christmas Day in England since the 1930s but this time it will be slightly different.
King Charles will be standing in next to a living tree for the first time ever to focus the attention on his environmental efforts. Buckingham Palace shared some details about the tree, noting that it’s decorated with “natural and sustainable decorations.” Adorning the tree are hand-turned wood, pinecones, brown glass, dried oranges and paper.
Following his Christmas message, the tree will be replanted.
Last year, King Charles is remembered his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in his first Christmas message from St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. The same place where the Queen was laid to rest alongside her husband Prince Philip.
The new monarch paid tribute to the Queen calling this time a “particularly poignant time for all of us who have lost loved ones.” Adding, “We feel their absence that every familiar turn of the season and remember them in each cherished tradition.”
He began his speech with, “I am standing here in this exquisite Chapel of St. George at Windsor Castle, so close to where my beloved mother, the late Queen, is laid to rest with my dear father.”
The King also shared his gratitude to the people who have sent their well wishes in the wake of her death in September.
“I am reminded of the deeply touching letters, cards and messages which so many of you have sent my wife and myself and I cannot thank you enough for the love and sympathy you have shown our whole family,” he said. King Charles’ Christmas message is the first time it hasn’t been delivered by the Queen since her first address in 1957. During her final Christmas speech last year, she spoke about “passing the baton” to the next generation. Unlike the Queen who typically sat at her desk to deliver the annual video, Charles stood by a Christmas tree wearing a dark blue suit.
He also said that he shares with his late mother, “a belief in the extraordinary ability of each person to touch, with goodness and compassion, the lives of others and to shine a light in the world around them.”
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