Why Does the Royal Family Open Their Presents on Christmas Eve and Not Christmas Morning?

The royal family Christmas is synonymous with tradition, and one tradition that steadfastly remains while celebrating the holiday at Sandringham? Opening presents on Christmas Eve.

Members of the British royal family exchange gifts every Dec. 24 — not on Christmas morning as many families do. As Prince Harry put it in his 2023 memoir, Spare, doing so is “a German tradition that survived the anglicizing of the family surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor.”

According to Town & Country, in Germany, Christmas Eve — or “Heiliger Abend” — is when the holiday is celebrated.

“Traditionally, many households will spend the day decorating the tree, preparing food for the family and sprucing up the home,” House Beautiful reported. “As soon as the night draws in, households will gather around the tree. According to tradition, the ‘Christkind’ (Christ child) delivers the presents when the children are waiting outside the room. A bell will be rung for children to step inside the room, where the family will then sing carols before the bescherung (opening of gifts) begins. Some families head to Christmas Eve services at their local churches afterward, while others may indulge in delicious food.”

The British royal family “is inextricably entwined with Germany,” according to Barron’s. King George I, crowned in 1714, was the first German king of Great Britain and belonged to the House of Hanover. Queen Victoria, one of his descendants, married a German prince, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and changed the royal family’s name from Hanover to Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. In fact, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are responsible for many of the royal family’s Christmas traditions that continue today, not the least of which is making the Christmas tree a popular staple.

The royal family changed its surname to Windsor in 1917, in the midst of World War I “as a result of anti-German feeling,” according to the royal family’s official website, “and the name Windsor was adopted after the castle of the same name.”

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Yet the German tradition of opening presents on Christmas Eve remains, even up to the present day. Around 4 p.m. on Dec. 24, tea and snacks are typically served to guests — who arrived earlier in the afternoon — in the White Drawing Room at Sandringham. In the Red Drawing Room, staff has already laid out presents on trestle tables for each family member — and the royal family doesn’t exchange expensive, lavish gifts, instead opting for gag gifts.

As Prince Harry describes it in Spare, each royal family member stands in front of their specified presents, and in a “free-for-all,” family members hurry to grab presents.

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

Harry added in the memoir that, even after he, wife Meghan Markle and son Prince Archie relocated to the U.S. in 2020, they continued to open presents on Christmas Eve, “Keeping to the Windsor family tradition.”

Back at Sandringham, the royal family gathers for a meal together at 8:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve, one that typically involves “something festive, some game — like pheasant or venison — and roasted wintery vegetables, like parsnips,” chef Darren McGrady, who worked for the royal family for 15 years, told PEOPLE.

On Christmas morning, the family heads to church at St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate and mingles with the public before heading back to Sandringham House and the traditional Christmas lunch of Norfolk turkey. Then, after lunch, the family gathers to watch the annual Christmas broadcast delivered by the monarch at 3 p.m. U.K. time before they adjourn to the Saloon, where jigsaw puzzles are traditionally laid out, or to exercise on Sandringham’s 20,000 acres.