Her Majesty's Christmas Broadcast

Among many Christmas traditions, there are two which owe much to the Royal Family. It was Queen Charlotte, the consort of King George III, who first introduced Christmas trees to Britain, and Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's consort, who made them popular. Since the 1930s, a speech broadcast by the king or queen on Christmas Day has become a very familiar tradition.

The Christmas message was started by The Queen's grandfather, King George V. King George had reigned since 1910, but it was not until 1932 that he delivered his first Christmas message. It was made possible by new radio technologies. That year had seen the beginning of the BBC's new Empire Service sending radio programmes around the British Empire. Today this service is known as the World Service. 

In his Christmas Day diary for that year, King George V wrote: 
"At 3.35 I broadcasted a short message of 251 words to the whole empire from Francis' room."
 
The message was sent from a study in Sandringham House in Norfolk. The text of the first Christmas speech was written by poet and writer Rudyard Kipling. The King famously said: "I speak now from my home and from my heart to you all; to men and women so cut off by the snows, the desert, or the sea, that only voices out of the air can reach them."

From 1932 until the end of his reign, King George V continued to broadcast at Christmas. His last Christmas broadcast in 1935 came less than a month before his death and the king's voice sounded weaker. He spoke of his people's joys and sorrows, as well as his own, and there was a special word for his children.

King George V's eldest son and the new king, Edward VIII, never delivered a Christmas Broadcast, as his reign lasted less than a year. The task fell to King George VI, King Edward's younger brother, who made his first broadcast in December 1937.

There was no broadcast in 1938, but in 1939, with the outbreak of the Second World War three months earlier, the king decided to speak to his people. 

He dressed in the uniform of the Admiral of the Fleet, sitting in front of two microphones on a table at Sandringham. It was to be a landmark speech and was to have an important effect on the listening public as they were plunged into the uncertainty of war:
"A new year is at hand. We cannot tell what it will bring. If it brings peace, how thankful we shall be. If it brings continued struggle we shall remain undaunted. In the meantime I feel that we may all find a message of encouragement in the lines which, in my closing words, I should like to say to you:
 'I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year, "Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown." And he replied, "Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be better than light, and safer than a known way.' "

King George VI's final Christmas Broadcast was marked by the illness that had plagued the King through his last years. The 1951 broadcast was the only broadcast that King George VI recorded rather than delivering live. The King was only able to manage it in intervals, but his voice came over strongly. He spoke of his recovery from illness and the goodwill messages he had received:
"From my peoples in these islands and in the British Commonwealth and Empire - as well as from many other countries - this support and sympathy has reached me and I thank you now from my heart..."

After the death of George VI in February 1952, the present Queen broadcast her first Christmas message. She spoke of carrying on the tradition passed on to her by the late King:
"Each Christmas, at this time, my beloved Father broadcast a message to his people in all parts of the world......As he used to do, I am speaking to you from my own home, where I am spending Christmas with my family... My Father [King George VI], and my Grandfather [King George V] before him, worked hard all their lives to unite our peoples ever more closely, and to maintain its ideals which were so near to their hearts.  I shall strive to carry on their work."

Throughout her reign The Queen has made a broadcast every year except one. In 1953, the Queen spoke from Auckland, New Zealand, the first and only time that the Christmas Broadcast has been made outside the United Kingdom. 

In 1957, the Christmas Broadcast was televised for the first time. The Queen spoke from the long library at Sandringham from a desk, on which there were photos of Prince Charles and Princess Anne. 

The Queen spoke of the tradition of the Christmas Broadcast and the use of television:
"Twenty-five years ago my grandfather broadcast the first of these Christmas messages. Today is another landmark because television has made it possible for many of you to see me in your homes on Christmas Day.... It is inevitable that I should seem a rather remote figure to many of you - a successor to the Kings and Queens of history....who never really touches your personal lives. But now, at least for a few minutes, I welcome you to the peace of my home.'

The only year that no broadcast was made was 1969. That year a documentary film called 'Royal Family' had been broadcast by the BBC and it was decided not to produce a broadcast as well. The Queen released a written message instead. People missed the broadcast, though, and wrote to ask that the message should be broadcast the next year. A message has been broadcast without break ever since.

The year 2003 saw the Queen's 50th Christmas Broadcast.  Then 70 years old, it had become a strong tradition. And whatever the subject of the message over the years, and whether sent through radio, TV or Internet, one thing has always remained.  All three monarchs have closed their message in the same way: by wishing all their listeners and viewers the very best of wishes for a happy Christmas.

Reference - ABC Kids 25 December 2003