Her Majesty the Queen’s Christmas broadcast 2020

On: December 25, 2020, By: Bill Young

Following the tradition that began in 1932 by her father, King George V, Her Majesty The Queen broadcast her inaugural Christmas message live on the radio from her study at Sandringham, Norfolk in 1952. The Queen began that year with: “Each Christmas, at this time, my beloved father broadcast a message to his people in all parts of the world. Today I am doing this to you, who are now my people.”

From 1952-56, the annual Christmas Day message was broadcast on BBC radio before her first television gig in 1957.

In an attempt to overcome nerves and a stinging editorial written by Lord Altrincham in The National and English Review, in which he had cruelly attacked her public speaking, Her Majesty looked upon this as a way to conquer her anxiety about the new medium, all in the interest of showing a more human side to her character.

Photo courtesy: BBC

Thankfully, this “new medium” of television, as The Queen put it some six decades ago in 1957, took hold, thus allowing for The Queen’s Happy Christmas message to be seen and not just heard each year on Christmas Day. This first televised Christmas broadcast by The Queen was also broadcast live from Sandringham House in Norfolk in 1957. I love her calling television a landmark as it allowed “so many of you to see me.”

This year (and what a year it was!), The Queen reflects on 2020’s events in her 68th message (radio and telly combined).

For the inner-Anglophile in all of us, here’s a comprehensive transcript list of all The Queen’s Christmas messages, from her initial message following the death of her father in 1952 to present day.