Swedish royals
Princess Estelle, Oscar and Co. give the family new Christmas traditions
© Dana Press
The Swedish royal family loves their Christmas traditions. However, with the offspring comes a lot of new ones – and it’s not just Grandma Silvia who will be fond of them.
The new generation is bringing momentum to the dusty traditions of the Swedish royals. Especially since the children of Princess Victoria, 46, and Prince Daniel, 50, Prince Carl Philip, 44, and Princess Sofia, 39, have been attending school, they are bringing home all sorts of new ideas and customs for the Christmas season.
Princess Estelle and Prince Oscar send gifts to Ukraine
According to “Expressen”, on December 1st, Princess Estelle, 11, and Prince Oscar, 7, rang in the Advent season at their school Campus Manilla with “jultröjans dag”, the “Christmas sweater day”, on which not only the students: inside, but also the teachers attend classes in Christmas sweaters.
In addition to festive clothing and decorating the school auditorium, there is also a particularly beautiful tradition that the siblings maintain at their school. As school director Robert Mellander explains to the Swedish publication, a former student started an initiative in which students from the Manilla campus buy and wrap Christmas presents. The gifts are then brought to Ukraine by former students who have recently graduated.
Prince Alexander and Prince Gabriel sing in the Christmas fairy tale
Prince Alexander, 7, and Prince Gabriel, 6, should also be in the Christmas spirit. The Djurgårdsskolan preschool class organizes a “secret” Lucia celebration every year. As school principal Caroline Köling reveals, teachers and older students always act as if they know nothing about the celebration and are then completely surprised when the preschool children appear in their white dresses. Little Gabriel may have been one of them this year. His big brother Alexander, on the other hand, was probably sitting in the audience and acting completely amazed.
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Carl Philip and Sofia’s two sons also took part in the school’s traditional Christmas performance at Oscars Church in Stockholm this year. The Christmas story has been performed here by third graders for almost 30 years. Alexander and Gabriel sang in the choir with their classmates and the third grade children took on the roles of Joseph, Mary and the Three Wise Men. The performance is not only popular with proud parents, it is also attended by several hundred spectators.
The Swedish royals treat each other with a wink
In addition to gifts that both schools of the Mini Royals send to children in need, small gifts will of course also be distributed among each other for the celebration that the Swedish royal family will spend together at Drottningholm Palace. While King Carl Gustaf, 77, likes to get books for his loved ones, the other adults give each other inexpensive and well-thought-out gifts that can sometimes be a little playful.
Before the presents begin, the Swedish royal family first gathers in the castle’s Stensalen, where Queen Silvia, 80, recites the Christmas story. This will probably only increase the anticipation for the Jultomte. In Sweden, the Christmas gnome comes instead of Santa Claus and Christ Child and leaves the presents.
Sources used: expressen.se, Dana Press