Best wishes from Queen Elizabeth and more: the most beautiful Christmas cards ever

Christmas, a time of good wishes, even for the members of the royal families, which they keep the tradition of royal Christmas card, postcards sent every year on the occasion of the holidays. For example, charities supported by royals receive them, but also ordinary citizens who send messages to regnanti & Co. A beloved custom, with very ancient roots.

It was the queen Victory of England to send the first Christmas card, in the mid-nineteenth century. The postcard, commissioned to an artist, depicted his family around the Christmas tree.

With the advent of photography, paintings were replaced by simpler images to make, which over time have also taken on different meanings. In 1914, for example, King George V, grandfather of Elizabeth II, and his wife Mary, expressly addressed their best wishes to the troops involved in the First World War: “God protect you and make you return home safely”, the king’s message.

In 1942, in the middle of the Second World War, the future Elizabeth II, in uniform, sent her wishes as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, infantry regiment, while only a few years earlier, she posed sulkily with her younger sister Margaret and parents for a classic family portrait.

Postcards are also an inexhaustible source of curiosity. George VI, father of Elizabeth II, signed himself Bertie, from Albert, his first name, while The Queen has always Lilibet, the nickname with which she was called by her parents and husband Filippo.

Today postcards have changed a lot compared to the past, but the undisputed protagonists are always family portraits. It is so, for example, for Kate Middleton and William of England: their Christmas card is always among the most awaited, especially because of their children, George, Charlotte e Louis. Compared to other royal babies they are not very exposed, so the postcard is an opportunity to see how much they have grown and unleash the full similarities. Definitely informal portraits compared to the posed items of the past, often made in the countryside, during moments of leisure and holidays.

Same mood for the Swedish royals. Postcards of the princess Victoria of Sweden and Daniel Westling, as well as those of the princes Carl Philip e Sofia, the children are always the protagonists, caught in informal moments. The heir to the throne of the Bernadotte house, in addition to the postcard, also usually sends greetings via Youtube, a nice leap forward compared to the posed of the past.

Also very modern Felipe VI and Letizia of Spain, who in recent years have sent postcards featuring the two daughters as protagonists, Leonor and Sofia, giving up the classic portrait and looking to the future.

The older generations remain faithful to more classic canons. Charles of England and his wife Camilla usually choose an official photo taken during the year just passed, while Sofia and Juan Carlos of Spain, the emeritus sovereigns, rely on images of the Nativity.

Different styles, which over time have led the postcards, especially the oldest ones, to be even auctioned, as sometimes happens with those sent by Carlo and Diana at the time of their marriage.

The most coveted, of course, are those with the original signatures of the royals, sent only to a close circle of people. Everyone else has to make do with a printed card. There is no other solution. Solo a Buckingham Palace, eg, About 70,000 letters arrive every year, with an average of 200-300 per day. The Queen certainly can’t sign them all.