This is a detailed account of what Christmas is like in a royal setting throughout the ages. A lot of research has gone into this book. Perfect for fans of history and royalty

As someone who loves both history and Christmas, this book was right up my street. It delves into the traditions and festivities of the British Royal Family since the 11th century, up to the modern age and I found it truly fascinating! It is quite academically written in style, as you would expect from a history book, but not so much so as to be inaccessible or remind you of school lessons. This is an informative and highly entertaining deep dive into how royalty do Christmas and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Organised thematically, it covers such topics as Christmas and conflict in the 20th century, Christmas pastimes, festive feasts, Christmas and the Commonwealth, and many more, to reveal the many ways in which the Royal Family have celebrated the festive season through the ages.

Jeremy Archer has delved into the Royal Archives to uncover the personal thoughts of many members of the Royal Family during the Christmas period. What comes over most strongly from Queen Victoria’s journals is the importance of family: the joys they shared, the trials they endured, and the carefully-selected gifts they exchanged. Although there is much happiness, tragedy is a common bed-fellow, particularly in earlier times. And conflict is seldom very far away. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a fun and succinct look at British royal Christmases over the last three to four centuries. It is a great intro for anyone who is curious, and a fast, festive read!

I had already read this book, so I was expecting an update, but it was a republishing.

Thank you to Elliot & Thompson and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
A Royal Christmas is an extensive historical overview of how the British Royal Family celebrated and adapted Christmas throughout the decades, beginning from the early years of King William I’s reign in 1066. The book provides a variety of personal testimonies and historical accounts of Christmas Days within the monarchy, describing the Royal Family’s European familial connections and their reactions during major events. Among the notable happenings mentioned are the adoption of grand Christmas trees from Germany thanks to Queen Charlotte, personal reflections of Royal Family members who have passed away, a memorable 1940 Christmas card where King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother were photographed amid the rubble at Buckingham Palace after the Blitz, and Queen Elizabeth II’s famous Christmas broadcasts that ran from 1952 to 2021. Archer’s work aims to provide an in-depth look at the modernization of Christmas within the British Royal Family and includes photographs from the Royal Archives. An informative read!

This was a great read. I found it so interesting and enjoyed learning more about royal family through the ages. I thought the author did a brilliant job of pulling together various sources of information. You could tell it was well researched. There was plenty of wonderful description that kept my attention throughout. It was wonderful reading about old traditions and how new ones were created. I loved learning about the various gifts the royal family receives. I found myself laughing at some of them. I am so glad that I found this book as I love learning. I definitely recommend reading this book, especially if you like history, politics and the royal family.

So much praise goes out to the author and publishers for bringing us such an interesting book. I definitely struggled to put this book down and it took me just over a day to read.
The above review has already been placed on goodreads, waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK where found and my blog
https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/a-royal-christmas-by-jeremy-archer-elliot-thompson-4-stars under ladyreading365

I began reading this book over the Christmas period and finished it just after the turn of the year, however it has taken me some time to form the words to evaluate my thoughts on this book as sadly I found it quite a disappointing read.

Exploring Christmastime from the medieval era to the present day within the British Monarchy the author leads us through the various royal houses to have been in power throughout British history.

From Henry VIII to Queen Victoria and then on to the late Queen Elizabeth II, the level of research that Archer carried out was commendable in providing historical context.

The inclusion of primary sources in the form of letters and diaries gave a certain level of intimacy to the setting, however, I did find the overall reading experience extremely disjointed with an over-reliance on quotation that at times made for an incredibly dry read.

While I did find some interest in the historical context, I did wish that there was more value placed on the subject of "Christmas" within the book.

Sadly, this was not the book for me but I thank the publisher Elliot & Thompson and Netgalley for providing me with an e-book to review.

Thank you to @netgalley and Elliott & Thompson Limited for approving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review 😊

Although this book is only 336 pages, it crams in SO much information! It is in depth and is an ideal read for any royal or history fan (and also those who love Christmas 🎄).

I found the letters by Queen Victoria particularly interesting. Especially her grief at the death of Prince Albert and how much he loved Christmas. I don't often read non-fiction, so that was a bit of a change. I haven't rated this book as I'm finding it difficult to do so rating facts 😕 but I would really recommend it if you like the topics I have already mentioned.

A Royal Christmas by Jeremy Archer is a very detailed history of the Christmas traditions of the royal family dating back to the very early days 9f the realm. Photos from more recent holidays are included. Great for royal history buffs!

As a Royal fan, this was fun to have and read over the holidays. . .while my expectations were scrambled. . .I envisioned a year by year report. . .this went more by eras, and activities beyond holidays. It was very interesting to read from Victoria's own hand her reactions through the years of how people on her lands were greeted during holidays (gipsies, in particular). As a devoted journal keeper, Victoria had a lot to say and share.

Many notes and references included, along with some pictures, right through to 2005.

A Sincere Thank You to Jeremy Archer, Elliott & Thompson and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review. #ARoyalChristmas #NetGalley

A very enjoyable book to read covering just about everything to do with the Royals and Christmas - from what was eaten on Xmas day/the festive season, the gifts exchanged with each other and to how they spent Xmas day/the festive period. I enjoyed too that the Xmas day royal broadcast was covered too and how it has changed as the years have gone on. A book that is definitely worth a read.

A Royal Christmas is a good way to spend festive time with the British royals. Literally. The extracts of personal letters and diaries are crucial parts of each chapter.

The author goes back to the Tudors, but the core of this book is Queen Victoria and the beginning of the 20th century.

This book helped me to realize how history repeats itself. Some chapters are named Prince George with the Royal Navy, Princess Beatrice in Egypt, and The Duke and Duchess of York on Safari in Kenya. These are not the current holders of these titles.

In the beginning, I felt that the book contains too many citations and fewer narratives. Later, I changed my mind because it is suitable for the concept of this book.

I can only recommend A Royal Chrismas. I would say it is a must for each royal and history lover.

Thank you to NetGalley and Elliot & Thompson for a free digital review copy. This is my honest review.

An interesting if slightly disorganized history of Royal Christmases.

From an anecdotal perspective, this is a lovely compendium of information about Royal Christmases of the past, particularly those of the Victorian Era. Archer’s thorough research make this an entertaining and informative read.

I’ll echo the thoughts of other reviewers who expressed some disappointment in the organization of this book, which definitely left me wanting. The book jumps around in time in a manner that often doesn’t make sense, and uses some fairly nonsensical categories to organize content that should have just been presented chronologically.

The info dump style of citing primary sources here was also a bit frustrating. Well written research accounts generally quote minimally from primary sources and then share their own interpretations of those sources.

Here Archer does way, way too much copy and paste style reprinting of sources. I’d venture a guess that about half of the book is set up in this manner, and it leaves a lot of extraneous, dull material in the narrative and forces the reader to do the work that a good writer generally does for them: Separating the wheat from the chaff when it comes to primary documents.

All of that has the feel of sloppy editing, which is a shame because the bones of the content of this are good. I’d give the information five stars, and the presentation of that information two stars.

What attracted me to this book? First it was that lovely cover and second that terrific title. As a genuine royal lover of all things I couldn't wait to get my hands on this one.

I must say I was a bit disappointed. I thought this would be a joyous book about how the Royals celebrate Christmas-and it was to a certain extent. The book was separated into different chapters and eras. Starting with Medieval Tudors and going through the various different royal houses throughout the ages. Still, it seemed to jump back and forth. Especially Queen Victoria being mentioned throughout. I was just expecting a bigger emphasis on...well..."A Royal Christmas." Much of it was centred around Royal happenings and events around the Christmas period especially during Wartime.

The author did do a lot of substantial research using diaries and letters of various royals. I did enjoy the Queen Victoria chapters. As we've always been led to believe that it was through Prince Albert that many of the Christmas traditions were brought into the British royal family, it was interesting to learn something different. It was Queen Charlotte who should be credited with bringing the first Christmas tree into the British Royal Family. That was a nice tidbit. Also my favourite was the ending and reading Queen Elizabeth II's last Christmas broadcast message of 2021. A poignant ending indeed.

I'd like to kindly thank NetGalley and Elliott & Thompson Publishers for granting me access to this Advance Reader Copy.

I liked this very much, plenty of information and reproduction of diaries and letters written by various royals through the ages. The only reason for not giving it five stars was because I found it jumped about a bit through history, for example Queen Victoria's writings seemed to crop up throughout the book rather than dealing with one Royal at a time. However, it is welly worth a read and very informative.
(Thanks to Net Galley for this Book).

A Royal Christmas gives us a really good look into different aspects of Christmas time for the royal family. It mostly focuses on the historic royal family, although there are a few modern-day tales dotted about the book.

The book is mostly built of extracts of various diaries or letters, so you’re reading their exact thoughts on Christmas and the events that surrounded it. Archer doesn’t shy away from things like conflict or crisis, and devotes chapters to each topic respectively. Whilst Christmas is usually a lovely, warm time of year, it shouldn’t be forgotten that wars continue to be fought during the festive season, loved ones sadly will still pass away or go through illnesses, and sometimes it doesn’t feel like it’s a time to celebrate. Even royalty aren’t immune from this.

I really enjoyed the opening chapters looking at Queen Charlotte’s Christmas, and how she started introducing Christmas trees and other traditions we now think of as always having been there. Going through Queen Victoria’s traditions, before and after her beloved Prince Albert died, was also very interesting to read.

Archer has curated a very informative look into how royalty have celebrated Christmas over the last 200+ years. The chapters are well paced, and the diary/letter extracts have obviously been picked with great care. It definitely helped me feel quite festive, I’d recommend!

The way I loved this book may be a bit unnatural. I love anything about the royal family. present and past. This was such a nice and well-researched read for the holidays.

While I am a total lover of the royal family and all things British history in relation to them, this book seemed to suffer from a lack of cohesion and struggle with its subject matter.
From the title and the blurb, I would have assumed this would be a book about Christmas through the ages with the royal family. Yet the majority of it was about events that happened around the Christmas period, with an emphasis on various wars. There were mentions of Christmas celebrations but these were fewer than would be expected in a book about Christmas. The final chapters on the Christmas broadcasts were the most enjoyable and it was lovely to read Queen Elizabeth II's final Christmas broadcast in 2021.
Still an enjoyable book if you have an interest in the royal family. But do not expect it to be all that Christmassy.

Thank you to Net Galley and Elliott and Thompson for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have to admit I did not finish this book. It was not as I expected. I found instead of it being in chronological order, each chapter went back to Queen Victoria and started again. I have to admit I found it tedious and gave up.
I was disappointed as I am interested in the royal family and I felt this book could have been something I enjoyed.

This is an interesting look at Christmas through the ages as celebrated by the British Monarchy.
It’s very well researched, but is dry in places as it recounts history. I liked the diary entries, seeing Christmas through Queen Victoria’s eyes for instance.
Many of the traditions we associate with Christmas were popularized by the Royal family.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed as in this review are completely my own.