The Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 514
A Royal Christmas
Hello Everyone
l expect you have many traditions in your family when it comes to how you spend Christmas.
And you are probably making final preparations and wrapping your presents.
Have you ever wondered how the Royal Family spend their Christmas?
They always spend their holidays on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.
The large house sitting in more than 2,000 acres of land with farms and forests was bought by Queen Victoria in 1862.
More than 200 people make a living from working on the estate.
The whole family gathers at this royal retreat. They are housed in one enormous house and other houses and cottages as well.
Many cars turn up full of people and cases full of lots of outfits to wear for three days of festivities.
Activities are planned out and well-organized.
They, unlike most people in Britain, open their presents on Christmas Eve. The presents are labelled and lined up on long tables. They may not the lavish expensive presents you might imagine though. They are likely to be jokey presents to make people laugh, like funny books, doormats and toilet seats.
The royal staff would be given special Christmas puddings and keepsake gifts.
ln the evening, there is a candlelit dinner that lasts until late in the evening followed by singing and partying until the early hours.
There are stockings with small gifts and fruit to open for everyone the following morning.
After a hearty breakfast taken from a long sideboard, the whole family then attends a church service at nearby St Mary Magdalene at 11 o’clock. lt is a small 16th century church. The royals take up about a quarter of all the seats inside.
People wait for hours outside the church to get a glimpse of so many royals together in one place.
Then it is back for a traditional lunch at 1.15pm.
At 2.30pm there are crackers to pull and games like charades to play.
Then everyone sits down at 3.00pm to watch the Christmas Message that had been recorded a couple of weeks earlier at Buckingham Palace. lt would be a personal message written by the monarch.
The first ever live message was recorded by Queen Elizabeth in 1952 at Sandringham. lt was listened to by people on the radio. The first message was recorded by King George V in 1932. The first televised message was broadcasted in 1957 by Queen Elizabeth ll.
The Queen was always very good at talking to a television camera and was dubbed by the people who filmed her ‘One Take Windsor’. Charles lll took up the tradition when he became king.
Then, after the message has finished there will be a walk in the fresh air and then back home for more games and eating.
On Boxing Day a shooting party is arranged for the men and there will be an estate football match organized over the holidays too with drinks to follow in the local pub.
The royals will drift off at different times to spend time with other families but the decorations will stay up beyond 12th night.
Queen Elizabeth II always took the opportunity to take a long holiday at this time because she worked long hours during the rest of the year. As time moves on, new decisions will be made by other members of the royal family as to what they will decide to do for Christmas.
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Thank you!
And see you again next Fun Friday!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bob: What is a skunk’s favourite Christmas song?
Bill: l don’t know, what is a skunk’s favourite Christmas song?
Bob: Jingle smells!
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com
Picture Gallery
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
This week, Bill and Bob’s mum was rushing round doing shopping and cooking and all sorts of things.
They asked if they could help but she said she was in too much of a hurry to show them what to do so they made you a special Christmas puzzle instead and I promised I would put it on the News Desk this week.
So here it is. Take the first letter of every answer to spell another word.
You will have to un-muddle them first.
Where people go to attend Midnight Mass
Father Christmas’s sledge pulling power
What you need lots of to write all your Christmas cards
What some people like to put at the top of their tree
What you hang up on Christmas Eve
We wish you a _ _ _ _ _ Christmas
The sparkly stuff you garland the tree with
Who you want to visit you and bring presents
T’was the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a _ _ _ _ _
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Quick Quiz
Do you know the names of these places?
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE A LlTTLE SANTA
Who’s coming to visit you next week?
Use over-sew stitching to sew all the pieces of this project together
The trim is fluffy yarn sewn on with white dk yarn.
Push plenty of stuffing into the body to give him a tubby tummy.
If you want to hang this decoration on your tree, you must sew the hat to the head and a loop to the top of the hat. Otherwise he could be incorporated into a table decoration.
FRONT (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and red dk yarn cast on 8 stitches
Knit 12 rows of stocking stitch
Change to pink dk yarn
Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch
Change to white dk yarn
Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch
Don’t cast off – leave a length of yarn for sewing up when you cut off your yarn and leave your stitches on this yarn
BACK (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and red dk yarn cast on 8 stitches
Knit 12 rows of stocking stitch
Change to pink dk yarn
Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch
Change to white dk yarn
Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch
Don’t cast off – leave a length of yarn for sewing up when you cut off your yarn and leave your stitches on this yarn
LEGS (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and red dk yarn cast on 8 stitches
Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch
Change to black dk yarn
Knit 4 rows of stocking stitch
Don’t cast off – leave a length of yarn for sewing up when you cut off your yarn and leave your stitches on this yarn
ARMS (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and red dk yarn cast on 6 stitches
Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch
Change to pink dk yarn
Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch
Don’t cast off – leave a length of yarn for sewing up when you cut off your yarn and leave your stitches on this yarn
HAT (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 8 stitches
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Change to red yarn
Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch
Decrease 1 stitch at the beginning of each row of garter stitch until 2 stitches remain
Knit 2 together
Cast off
TO MAKE UP
- Using over-sew stitching and with right sides together sew side seams of head and body and also the arms and legs using appropriate colours
- Turn right sides out and pull tops of head, feet and hands in tight
- Stuff the body and legs with some stuffing and the ends of the yarn
- Stuff the arms with the ends of the yarn
- Bind a length of pink yarn around the neck and pull in tight then secure ends and push inside the stuffing
- Bind a length of pink yarn around the wrists and pull in tight then secure ends and push inside the arms
- Bind a length of black yarn around the ankles and pull in tight then secure ends and push inside the stuffing
- Make two French knot buttons on the front of the tunic by winding the white yarn around your yarn needle twice
- Sew the tops of the legs to the bottom of the body and the tops of the arms to the sides of the body from behind
- Sew two thicknesses of fluffy yarn around the hips, wrists and tops of the boots
- Wind three thicknesses around the neck to make a top trim to the tunic and a beard
- Sew the side seams of the hat with wrong sides together using red and then white yarn
- Sew a few stitches of fluffy yarn onto the top to make a bobble
- Add the blue French knot eyes before or after sewing up – wrap the yarn around your yarn needle twice
- Tie a length of black yarn around the waist to make a belt and a French knot (yarn three times around the needle) to make a buckle
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Answers to the News Desk Quiz
- where people go to attend Midnight Mass – church
- we wish you a _ _ _ _ _ Christmas – happy
- Father Christmas’s sledge pulling power – reindeer
- what you need lots of to write all your Christmas cards – ink
- what you hang up on Christmas Eve – stockings
- the sparkly stuff you garland the tree with – tinsel
- T’was the night before Christmas, when all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not even a _ _ _ _ _. – mouse
- what some people like to put at the top of their tree – angel
- who you want to visit you and bring presents – Santa Claus
Answer = Christmas
To all my readers
Quick Quiz Answers
- Buckingham Palace in London
- Sandringham House in England
- Balmoral Castle in Scotland
- Windsor Castle in England
From Bill, Bob, Emily and Henry
and Salty Sam
Embroidery Stitches
This is a British number.
There are other numbers for children to ring in other countries
if they need someone to talk to.
