Kate Middleton’s next Christmas... down to the last minute

When she slipped on Diana’s ring and agreed to enter The Firm next April, Kate Middleton knew that her life would change forever. Luckily, as William has volunteered to work on the 25th so that his married colleagues can spend the time with their wives and families, the bride-to-be will be able to enjoy one last traditional Christmas at home.

She should savour every moment as from next year she will be required to be “on parade” at Sandringham for the formalities of a Royal Christmas and as the future princess will soon learn, gongs govern life at Sandringham, even during the festive season. There are gongs for everything. One when its time to get dressed for dinner, another to signal that drinks are ready and a third gong is sounded when dinner is served.

While Flight Lieutenant Wales remains at RAF Valley on the Isle of Anglesey, his fiancée will be in the comfort of the Middleton family home in Berkshire. They will sit around a roaring log fire, wearing whatever casual clothes they feel like, watch television, eat their Christmas lunch together, enjoy the odd glass or two of wine and a walk in the countryside afterwards.

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In contrast, every member of the Royal Family who is invited to spend the holiday at Sandringham with Her Majesty is issued with a timetable and room plan that has been worked out by the Master of the Household and the Crown Equerry.

He’s called the Master, because among his other duties he controls the rooms at Sandringham, with the most important guests getting the best. If Prince Charles and Camilla didn’t get the ones they always occupy, the Master of the Household would soon be on the receiving end of a right Royal tantrum from the heir to the throne.

The Crown Equerry, who organises all Royal transport, works out the order in which the family should arrive and at what time, with 30-minute intervals between each one. As with everything to do with Royal protocol, the order of precedence dictates who must arrive first and who brings up the rear. Just as in showbusiness the least important members of the cast are on the first half of the bill with the star appearing for the finale.

The Princess Royal and her family will be among the first arrivals, with those above her in the order of precedence coming next, and the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall always the last.

When its Kate’s turn next Christmas she will be all right. As the wife of the second in line she will be expected to arrive only before her new father-in-law.

Before the actual day The Queen goes through a well-rehearsed programme that hasn’t changed in years. In the week before she leaves for Sandringham, every member of the Royal Household troops into the state apartments at Buckingham Palace to receive their gift from the boss.

Again it is all carried out in strict order of seniority with the members (private secretaries, Keeper of the Privy Purse, Comptroller of the Lord Chamberlain’s Office) coming first, then the officials (assistant press secretaries, office managers and clerical workers) with staff (that’s cooks, chauffeurs, cleaners, footmen and housemaids) coming last. Each one is given a gift voucher or book token, the value of which depends on their length of service. Later they are invited to a grand reception in the state ballroom, which is just as formal as any state occasion, black tie for the men and gowns for the ladies, wearing, as one guest told me, “every rock in the book”.

All the staff and pensioners, plus those who work in the Court Post Office (about 1,450 men and women) receive a Christmas pudding from the Queen but they no longer come from Harrods as they used to. Now the contract goes out to tender with the cheapest usually winning.

By tradition, the Queen also gives one hundredweight of coal to “deserving and needy” people living in Windsor. In the early days of her reign these numbered about 900, today the number has been reduced to fewer than 100. Christmas trees play an important part in the Royal festivities and trees from the Royal estates are given to a number of churches. Westminster Abbey gets two, St Paul’s Cathedral, three, the Guards’ Chapel, Wellington Barracks receives two while St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh and Crathie Parish Church near Balmoral all are given a tree each.

Several churches and schools close to Sandringham also receive their trees from the Queen. All those family members invited to join the Queen have to be there by mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve because unlike every other British family the Royals exchange their gifts on December 24.

The presents are laid out in the Red Drawing Room on trestle tables marked out with tape for each person. At 4.30pm on the dot under the supervision of the Duke of Edinburgh everyone opens his or her packages in front of everyone else. The golden rule is that they should all be “joke” presents with practically no monetary value at all.

After all, what else do you give the family that already has everything? When Diana, Princess of Wales, spent her first Christmas at Sandringham neither Charles or anyone else let her in on the joke so she went to enormous expense and trouble selecting various gifts only to find her new relatives thinking it was hilarious.

Kate won't suffer the same embarrassment next year as William will make sure of that.

The most successful present yet was one given to Prince Charles by his sister, Princess Anne. She chose a white, leather toilet seat but he found it so comfortable it is said to accompany him all over the world.

The family attend morning service at St Mary Magdalene Church on Christmas morning but The Queen receives Holy Communion privately from her chaplain beforehand. When the collection plate is passed around her equerry passes her a £10 note.

After Christmas lunch everything stops while everyone, staff and family, watch Her Majesty’s Christmas message on television.

After dinner, which is very formal with the gentlemen in black tie and dinner jackets and the ladies in long evening gowns and tiaras, the family likes to play charades until midnight, with nobody permitted to go to bed until the Queen retires.

Boxing Day, which this year is when Kate and William are expected to join the Royal Family, is devoted to a shooting party organised by Prince Philip.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh invite other friends to join them for a few days and Her Majesty always stays at Sandringham until the beginning of February. Surprisingly, she also insists that the Christmas decorations remain up until she leaves and not taken down on 12th night as in most homes.

The normal rules do not apply as Kate will soon find out.