The Christmas Broadcast: An Important Christmas Day Tradition in UK

Queen Elizabeth II in one of the Christmas broadcasts. Image from Youtube. 

Every Christmas day, the British sovereign delivers a broadcast  to the Commonwealth of Nations. This is a tradition that began in 1932 with a radio broadcast by King George V on the British Broadcasting Corporation's Empire Service. Since then, it has evolved into an important part of the Christmas Day celebrations for many in Britain and around the world.

The Christmas broadcast was conceived as early as 1922 when the "founding father" of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), John Reith, asked King George V if he could possibly deliver a short broadcast on the newly created radio service. The king, thinking that the radio was better off as a medium of entertainment, declined the idea. In 1932, the Empire Service, the precursor of today’s World Service, was inaugurated and Reith thought a message from the sovereign would be the best way to inaugurate the broadcaster. With the backing of Queen Mary and Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, King George V relented and his first Royal Christmas Message. A temporary studio was set up out of two rooms at Sandringham House where the king recorded his speech.

The transmission was an exercise of contemporary logistic brilliance, the Royal Family’s official website explains.  The microphones at Sandringham were connected through Post Office land lines to the Control Room at Broadcasting House. From here, connection was established to BBC transmitters in the Home Service, and to the Empire Broadcasting Station at Daventry with its six short-wave transmitters.

The General Post Office transmitted the broadcast to Australia, Canada, India, Kenya and South Africa. The time chosen was 3.00pm - the best time for reaching most of the countries in the Empire by short waves from the transmitters in Britain. Following an hour long program, the first Broadcast started at five past three (twenty-five minutes to four according to the King's 'Sandringham Time') and lasted two and a half minutes.

The message is usually about the major events that occurred within the year, with focus on the British Empire, and, later the Commonwealth of Nations. It is the monarch’s reflection of current issues and concerns, and on what Christmas means to the audience. It is about the sovereign's own personal milestones and feelings on Christmas, a chronicle of international, national and personal events that have affected sovereign.  It is one of the few instances when the sovereign speaks publicly without any advice his ministers. The sovereign’s speech is planned months before Christmas, after the message’s theme is decided. The actual speech is recorded a few days before Christmas.