How the Royal Family spend Boxing Day - from historic sport to hearty meal
ok.co.ukAfter two days of eating and drinking in lavish style, Boxing Day is when many of the royals get up early, pull on their waxed Barbour jackets and wellington boots, and load their guns for a day of shooting on the 20,000-acre Sandringham estate.
Although for many of us the day is about strolling off the excesses, playing games and snuggling in front of the TV, senior members of the family are expected to join the hunt for plump pheasants or grouse.
But before the action commences, the day begins with a bumper breakfast. Former royal chef Darren McGrady, who worked at Sandringham for many Christmases, says, “It was an early, hearty breakfast buffet for the men – with sausage, eggs, bacon and devilled kidneys. “The royal women would usually have a continental-style tray in their bedrooms instead, because they were still getting ready for the day.Then the men would set off for the shoot and the women would join them later, beating for pheasants in the bushes.” Former royal bodyguard Ken Wharfe says the flat, open landscape of Norfolk provided the perfect environment for shooting. “It’s a paradise for it,” he says. “Everything is in place and there is privacy and security.
It is one of the great shooting estates with the best managers and gamekeepers.” In the early 20th Century, under Edward VII and George V, Sandringham even had its own time zone, with clocks set half an hour ahead of GMT to provide extra daylight for the shoot.The hunting tradition stems back generations, and after inheriting a passion for it from his parents, King Charles would regularly host shooting parties on the Sandringham estate during his student days.
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