From messages from the future Queen Elizabeth II during the Second World War to the battalion for which she worked as a mechanic, to more informal shots of Kate and William, passing through Diana and Charles in the 1980s: the most beautiful Christmas cards of the British royal family through the decades.

While the practice of exchanging gifts during the holidays dates back to the ancient Romans, <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/music/all-i-want-for-christmas-is-you-mariah-carey-30-year-old-song" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christmas</a> cards , as we know them today, have a much more recent genesis. The first official postcard was created in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole in Victorian England , and designed by artist John Callcott Horsley. This postcard showed a family reunited in celebration and scenes of charity, with the aim of spreading the Christmas spirit and making it easier to send greetings at a time when postal services were becoming increasingly affordable - only three years earlier the first postage stamp in history had been invented.

And so soon the <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/culture/discover-the-significance-of-key-titles-within-the-royal-family" target="_blank" rel="noopener">British royal family</a> also took up the habit of sending Christmas cards, which, more than a century after the first ones, have become a consolidated tradition of British Christmas, aesthetically reflecting the changes within the family and in English society.
If in the 1940s, the future Queen Elizabeth II sent postcards to the Grenadier Guards - the regiment for which she served during the Second World War as a driver and mechanic -, expressing her support during the war, in the 1980s, Prince Charles and Princess Diana shared family pictures with little William and Harry , in perfect Eighties style.
With the new millennium, the style of postcards has become more informal, with more candid shots reflecting a contemporary image of the monarchy. For Christmas 2024 , William and Kate have chosen a family photo taken at their Norfolk residence, conveying a message of resilience and hope and taken from the video Kate broadcast on the BBC last summer after finishing her chemotherapy treatments . Meanwhile, Harry and Meghan have opted for a digital card featuring images of their family in California, highlighting the value of connection during the festive season.

The Royal Family's Most Beautiful Christmas Cards, A Journey Through the Decades

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