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The Christmas dinner incident that the British royal family couldn't forget
2025-12-25 14:49:53 / BOTA
A previously unknown incident from a festive table of the British royal family was revealed by a former waiter who worked for the family to marieclaire.com, reminding us that the late queen had a sharp sense of humor.
This unexpected incident at Sandringham House became a topic of discussion within the royal family for many years. Queen Elizabeth is known to love small, unexpected events that could momentarily change our strict agenda.
Christmas at Sandringham went like clockwork, however, as former royal butler Paul Burrell reveals, there were occasional small "accidents" that ultimately remained unforgettable.
Speaking exclusively to Marie Claire on behalf of Casino.org, the waiter, who worked with both Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth, describes an incident he describes as a "disaster" when a member of staff was engulfed in flames during Christmas dinner.
“The Christmas meal was coming to a close, the lights around the table were going down and the pudding was slowly appearing,” he explains. The brandy was heated over a flame and, once it reached the right temperature, was poured over the dessert, which the palace steward would “light”. However, that year there was only a little extra brandy ,” he recalls. “When he tried to light the pudding, the flames shot up and burned the steward’s eyebrows. For a few seconds he looked like he was on fire and the whole table was bursting into laughter. They didn’t immediately run to rescue him because it was the most unusual thing that had happened that Christmas and they found it hilarious. It was so strange to them that the incident was talked about for days.”
The former butler didn't specify who exactly was at the table that year, but he was in the service of Princess Diana from 1987 until her death in 1997, and previously worked as a butler to Queen Elizabeth. "They have a very special sense of humor, and to see something like that was just priceless," he says of the royal family. "They never forgot it. They never forgot the year the palace manager set his eyebrows on fire."
According to Burrell, these kinds of "little mishaps or surprises" made Christmas more interesting for the royal family. It was only when something unusual happened that they could really laugh and relax, as otherwise everything followed the same rhythm every year.
Within this framework of strict rules and traditions, it is not surprising that a minor accident, which fortunately did not develop into anything more serious, provided, if only for a moment, a sense of comic relief that the family needed, as they rarely deviated from protocol.
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