Prince Harry’s bizarre childhood Christmas gift he won’t pass on to Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet

Prince Harry’s Christmas in Montecito with his wife Meghan Markle, 43, and children Prince Archie, three, and Princess Lilibet, five, couldn’t be further from his childhood festivities spent at Sandringham.

However, there is one element from a particular childhood Christmas that Harry, 40, has admitted he wasn’t a fan of – a certain Christmas gift from his late great-aunt Princess Margaret.

Writing in his memoir Spare, Prince William’s brother shared that the late Queen’s sister bought him a biro pen with a small rubber fish wrapped around it, which he described as “cold-blooded”.

Harry confessed that his relationship with his father’s aunt was not a close one, adding that he felt: “nothing for her, except a bit of pity and a lot of jumpiness.”

Harry’s Christmas tradition

Despite receiving a gift he will never pass on to his children, there is a royal tradition that the Sussexes still observe at Christmas, despite their move to California in 2020.

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In Spare, the Duke of Sussex described his first Christmas spent in Montecito apart from King Charles and Prince William having stepped down from senior royal duties.

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“It was Christmas Eve. We FaceTimed with several friends, including a few in Britain. We watched Archie running around the tree. And we opened presents. Keeping to the Windsor family tradition,” he wrote.

The royal explained that the festive rule observed at Sandringham is a nod to the family’s Anglo-Saxon heritage.  

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“The whole family gathered to open gifts on Christmas Eve, as always, a German tradition that survived the anglicizing of the family surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor,” the father-of-two wrote, recalling a childhood Christmas spent in Norfolk.

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“We were at Sandringham in a big room with a long table covered with white cloth and white name cards. By custom, at the start of the night, each of us located our place, stood before our mound of presents.

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“Then suddenly, everyone began opening at the same time. A free-for-all, with scores of family members talking at once and pulling at bows and tearing at wrapping paper.”

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In a recent interview with Marie Claire, the Duchess of Sussex revealed what she was looking forward to this festive season. 

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“I think as a mom with children, you’re just enjoying having them there, but they’re not understanding everything that’s happening yet,” Meghan explained. “But now we’re at the age where I just can’t wait to see it through their lens every year.”