The public would be horrified to see how many gifts Kate, Will & Charles gets, says butler- this is what happens to them
WHEN you are one of the most famous families in the UK, it follows that the royal family would receive some fan mail or gifts over the years.
However a former royal butler has revealed the public would be “horrified” by how much they get sent at Christmas.
Grant Harrold told Fabulous: “Do you know you’d be horrified how many [presents] they get?
“ And I think the public would be like ‘wow’ because they get loads of gifts.
“I didn’t see everything that came in because there were so many.
“Most of the presents would be sent to the Palace.
“Interesting people didn’t ever send them to the homes unless you knew the home address.
“They’ll go to the palace, and they’ll be inundated.”
Grant, who was butler for the Royal Family from 2004 to 2011, said that most gifts weren’t returned unless there was a reason.
He added: “If it was something too extravagant.
“They’d be all logged. They’d be all catalogued.
“Not every single gift can be presented.
“There’s no way he [the king] can look at a thousand gifts.
“What I think happens – this is my guesstimate because of what happens with Christmas cards and letters – is samples are put out for him to look at and to read.
“So you could always imagine a sample of gifts will be displayed for him to look at with the notes and things with them so you can look at them.”
Grant, who worked with the then-Prince Charles, Prince William, and Prince Harry while working at Highgrove, stated that if you send a gift into the palace you will receive a response.
He explained: “Every gift will within reason get a response. At some time frame.
“There will be a response, there’ll be a thank you.
“It’s not going to be handwritten. Unfortunately, it’s the kind of generic things that get sent out.
“You can see it’s not being done by them, but it’s like a stamp thing, but it’s still a nice touch and people appreciate it, but they will get a huge amount.”
How to write to the royal family
The Prince and Princess of Wales
Kensington Palace
London
W8 4PX
The King and Queen
Buckingham Palace
London
SW1A 1AA
Gift destination
But what happens to the huge supply of gifts sent into the palace?
According to the official website: “If perishable official gifts with a value less than £150 are not to be personally used or consumed by the Member of The Royal Family, in order to avoid waste, they may be
given to charities or other third parties, including, for the avoidance of doubt, staff.
“Perishable official gifts with a value of over £150 not to be personally used or consumed by the Member of The Royal Family should pass to charity.”
Gifts cannot be “sold or exchanged, but may be used by the royals, put on display in Royal residences and on Royal Estates, become part of the Royal Collection, or be placed on temporary or permanent loan with a reputable organisation.
Awkward royal moment
Last year, Grant shared the terrifying moment he once dropped a souffle in front of His Majesty.
Speaking at an etiquette dinner hosted by Press Box PR, he told Fabulous: “The biggest faux pas that I ever did in the dining room, which I’ve never talked about, I was serving dinner to the King and some family members and I remember going around the table and putting plates down.
“We were going back to get the starter – a souffle or something – and I remember walking around the table serving everyone.
“I got to the King, leaned over, offered the dish, and went back.”
Grant then mimed spooning the souffle onto the table, and claims Charles had let out a surprised exclamation in response.
The butler continued: “I’m looking and I thought ‘oh God, I haven’t given him a plate’.
“It had gone straight onto a charger, an underplate, a silver one.
Inside the Royal Family’s extravagant Christmas Eve celebrations
SARAH Hewson, royal editor at Talk TV, said the Royal Family typically gather on Christmas Eve to kickstart the celebrations.
She added: “The little royals – George, Charlotte and Louis and Camilla’s grandchildren – will help finish decorating the tree.
“Then, the royal family and all their guests will place their gifts on a trestle table in the red drawing room and they will open them at tea time, a German tradition introduced by Prince Albert.
“And contrary to what we might expect when you think about a royal Christmas, there are no diamonds under the tree.
“They actually give joke gifts – Kate once, when he was single, gave Harry a Grow Your Own girlfriend kit, and apparently Meghan’s present to the Queen on her first Christmas at Sandringham with a singing hamster.
“He looked at me, and I looked at him and there was a moment of – you could almost hear music – we were staring at each other like ‘who is going to make the first move?’
“He looked at me and he went ‘don’t worry it’s fine’.”
Grant then said Charles pointed to himself asking: “Royal?” to which the butler had replied: “Yes sir.”
The former staff member then claims Charles pointed to the silver underplate and responded: “Silver, it’s fine, I’m royal, I can eat off silver.”
While the moment was undoubtedly awkward for Grant, he said it demonstrated the monarch’s kindness.
He added: “It showed his humility, if it had been anyone else they would have said ‘can you go get me a plate’ or ‘can you clean this up?’
“That just shows you that behind closed doors he’s a really genuinely nice guy.
“Even when you got things wrong, he wouldn’t even make a big thing about it.
“He was very lowkey about it and turned it into a bit of fun.”
The former butler brands himself as Britain’s leading “Royal etiquette expert” and he trains other housekeepers in the UK.
He now creates videos on social media, offering advice to Brits on fine dining and manners.
He is now also a regular guest on TV shows such as This Morning and Good Morning Britain.
Grant previously revealed the correct way to use cutlery.