It’s become a seasonal tradition to seek the hidden message or symbolic meaning in the Christmas cards the royals send out, as they keep changing and reinventing the format.
This year’s card from King Charles and Queen Camilla shows them looking relaxed and maybe relieved – and there is a very personal significance behind this picture.
It was the first photoshoot after the King was given the green light that he was well enough to return to public duties, after beginning his cancer treatment. It was said to be a watershed moment for the couple, caught on camera.
The same pictures, with images full of spring rebirth, were then used for the official announcement that the King had made sufficient progress with his treatment to go back to public events.
There’s also a pattern that even though these are Christmas cards, forget the snowy steeples and robins, because royal cards rarely seem to have any signs of winter.
And the message, printed in red, always look like a party invitation from the 1950s.
