The Christmas message was started by The Queen's grandfather, King George V. King George had reigned since 1910, but it was not until 1932 that he delivered his first Christmas message, which was then made possible by new radio technologies. That year had seen the beginning of the BBC's new Empire Service, which sent radio programmes around the British Empire. Today this service is known as the World Service.
In his Christmas Day diary for that year, King George V wrote:
"At 3.35 I broadcasted a short message of 251 words to the whole empire from Francis' room."
The message was sent from a study in Sandringham House in Norfolk. The text of the first Christmas speech was written by poet and writer Rudyard Kipling. The king used a microphone encased in Australian walnut, while a thick cloth covered the table to cover the sound of rustling paper. The king famously said: "I speak now from my home and from my heart to you all; to men and women so cut off by the snows, the desert, or the sea, that only voices out of the air can reach them."
From 1932 until the end of his reign, King George V continued to broadcast at Christmas. His last Christmas broadcast in 1935 came less than a month before his death and the king's voice sounded weaker. He spoke of his people's joys and sorrows, as well as his own, and there was a special word for his children.
King George V's eldest son and the new King, Edward VIII, never delivered a Christmas Broadcast, as his reign came to an end before Christmas 1936. The task then fell to King George VI, Edward's younger brother although he did not do a Christmas broadcast in 1936. The next Christmas, that of 1937, the King made it clear that he did not want to carry on the broadcast, as he felt it to be irretrievably linked to his father in the minds of the people.
"I cannot aspire to take his place - nor do I think that you would wish me to carry on, unvaried, a tradition so personal to him".
For this reason, King George VI did not broadcast the following year.
In 1939 though, with war having been declared some 3 months earlier, and with unease felt throughout the country and empire, the king decided to speak out to his people. He dressed in the uniform of the Admiral of the Fleet, sitting in front of two microphones on a table at Sandringham. It was to be a landmark speech and was to have a profound effect on the listening public.
"A new year is at hand. We cannot tell what it will bring. If it brings peace, how thankful we shall be. If it brings continued struggle we shall remain undaunted. In the meantime I feel that we may all find a message of encouragement in the lines which, in my closing words, I should like to say to you: I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year, "Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown." And he replied, "Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be better than light, and safer than a known way.""
His final Christmas Broadcast, like that of his father's, was marked by the illness that had plagued him through his last years. The 1951 broadcast was the only broadcast that King George VI pre-recorded. He was only able to manage it in intervals, but his voice came over strongly. He spoke of his recovery and the goodwill messages he had received.
"From my peoples in these islands and in the British Commonwealth and Empire - as well as from many other countries - this support and sympathy has reached me and I thank you now from my heart..."
King George VI died in February 1952. His eldest daughter became Queen Elizabeth II and that year she broadcast her first Christmas message. She spoke of carrying on the tradition passed on to her by the late King. "Each Christmas, at this time, my beloved Father broadcast a message to his people in all parts of the world......As he used to do, I am speaking to you from my own home, where I am spending Christmas with my family...My father and my grandfather before him, worked hard all their lives to unite our peoples ever more closely, and to maintain its ideals which were so near to their hearts. I shall strive to carry on their work.'
The Queen also asked that people pray for her on the day on her coronation, which was to come the following year (2nd June, 1953), to ask God to give her wisdom and strength, "...that I may faithfully serve Him and you, all the days of my life."
In 1953, the Queen spoke from Auckland, New Zealand, the first and only time that the Christmas Broadcast has been done outside the United Kingdom. In 1957, the 25th anniversary of the first Christmas Broadcast, delivered by her grandfather, King George V in 1932, the Christmas Broadcast was televised. The Queen spoke from a desk in the long library at Sandringham, on which there were pictures of Prince Charles and Princess Anne. Christmas cards were displayed in the background.
"Twenty-five years ago my grandfather broadcast the first of these Christmas messages. Today is another landmark because television has made it possible for many of you to see me in your homes on Christmas Day....I very much hope this ....will make my Christmas message more personal and direct. It is inevitable that I should seem a rather remote figure to many of you - a successor to the Kings and Queens of history....who never really touches your personal lives. But now, at least for a few minutes, I welcome you to the peace of my home."
The Queen also spoke of the changing role of Monarchy over the centuries: "In the old days, the monarch led his soldiers on the battlefield and his leadership at all times was close and personal. Today things are very different. I cannot lead you into battle. I do not give you laws or administer justice. But I can do something else. I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations."
The Queen has given a Christmas Broadcast every year of her reign, with the exception of 1969. That year the film 'Royal Family' had been shown by the BBC and it was decided not to do a broadcast. The Queen released a written message to newspapers instead, while Christmas Morning Service from St. George's Chapel, Windsor, was broadcast for the first time. However, the public voted with their pens and many letters were received by the palace by people upset at the fact that there had been no broadcast. The television audience for the previous year (1968) had been estimated at over 23 million in the UK alone.
In 1977, The Queen spoke of her Silver Jubilee and all that it had meant to her: "I shall never forget the scene outside Buckingham Palace on Jubilee Day." In 1982, there was a special anniversary.
"It is fifty years since the BBC External Service was started and my grandfather King George V made the first Christmas Broadcast from Sandringham. Today I am speaking to you from the Library at Windsor Castle, in a room which was once occupied by Queen Elizabeth I."
In 1992, The Queen continued this theme, when she spoke from Sandringham: "It was from here that I made my first Christmas Broadcast forty years ago....I first came for Christmas as a grandchild. Nowadays my grandchildren come here for the same family festival."
This will be The Queen's 51st Christmas Broadcast. When this is added to the fourteen of her father and the four of her grandfather, it becomes clear what a tradition the Christmas Broadcast has become. Whatever the political, economic or social situation of the country or commonwealth, or whether through radio or television, all three monarchs have always closed their message in the same way though: by wishing all their listeners and viewers the very best of wishes for a very happy Christmas.
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