Sebastian's First Christmas Message

The King's Christmas message (also known as The Queen's Christmas message in the reign of a female monarch, formally as His Majesty's Most Gracious Speech, and informally as the Royal Christmas message) is a broadcast made by the sovereign of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms to the Commonwealth of Nations each year at Christmas. The tradition began in 1932 with a radio broadcast by King George V via the British Broadcasting Corporation's Empire Service. The message is broadcast on television, radio, and the Internet via various providers. It is usually broadcast at 15:00 GMT on Christmas Day.

Historical Details

History

The idea for a Christmas message from the sovereign to the British Empire was first proposed by the founding director-general of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), John Reith, in 1922 when he approached King George V about making a short broadcast on the newly created radio service. The King declined, however, believing that radio was mainly an entertainment. Reith approached the King again ten years later, in 1932, as a way to inaugurate the Empire Service (now the World Service) and the King finally agreed after being encouraged to do so by Queen Mary and Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald. That year, King George V read the first Royal Christmas message, which was scripted by Rudyard Kipling; the King was originally hesitant about using the relatively untested medium of radio, but was reassured after a summertime visit to the BBC and agreed to carry out the concept and read the speech from a temporary studio set up at Sandringham House. The 1934 Christmas broadcast was introduced from Ilmington Manor by 65-year-old Walton Handy, a local shepherd, with carols from the church choir and the bells ringing from the town church, and reached an estimated 20 million people in Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

While his brother, King Edward VIII, abdicated just before his first Christmas as king, King George VI continued his father's Christmas broadcasts; it was in his 1939 reading delivered in the opening stages of the Second World War that he uttered the famous lines: "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 to you better than light, and safer than a known way.'"

For many years, the King's speech came at the end of an hour-long broadcast of greeting from various parts of the British Empire and Commonwealth which typically included interviews with ordinary people of many occupations such as an innkeeper in an English village, a miner in South Africa, and a lifeguard in Australia with the King's speech serving as a bond tying the Commonwealth together.

George's daughter and successor, Queen Victoria II, gave her first Christmas message to the Commonwealth of Nations from her study at Sandringham House, at 3:07 PM on 25 December 1952, some 10 months after her father's death. Five years later, the message was broadcast on television for the first time. It has been an annual television broadcast every year since, with the exception of 1959 and 1963 when the Queen was heavily pregnant; and 1969: that year, no message was given because a special documentary film, Royal Family, had been produced during the summer in connection with the investiture of the Prince of Wales. It was therefore decided not to do a broadcast at Christmas, but the Queen issued a written message instead.

Until 1996, the Christmas broadcast was always produced by the BBC; the monopoly was ended when it was announced that, from 1997, the message would be produced and broadcast alternately by the BBC and its main rival, Independent Television News, with a biennial rotation. Beginning in 2011, Sky News was added to the rotation.

Sky News recorded the Queen's Christmas message for Christmas for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee year, and for the first time it was recorded in 3D. Buckingham Palace are reported to have explained: "We wanted to do something a bit different and special in this Jubilee year, so doing it for the first time in 3D seemed a good thing, technology wise, to do."

Under the reign of Queen Victoria II, the themes and direction of the speech were decided by the Queen and the text was largely written by the Queen herself, sometimes with assistance from Prince Michael and her staff. In the later years of her reign, the speech became more personal and religious in tone.

In what would become her penultimate address, Queen Victoria II spoke of her beliefs in compassion, understanding and tolerance, pinning her belief that her own faith demands the acceptance and celebrations of all peoples' identities. At the time, this was viewed as a rare look into her views on human sexuality. In retrospect, many believe that she was specifically referring to her great grandson, Prince Sebastian, later His Majesty Sebastian I.

Traditionally, the message begins with the British national anthem God Save The King.

Legacy

For his first Christmas Address, King Sebastian reflected on the traumas both he and the nation experienced during the preceeding year, especially the death of his father, King George VII, and mirrored it with the joys surrounding his own engagement to the Duke of Cambridge.

The speech was viewed as surprising religious, coming from a homosexual (though Sebastian's consistant attendance at church as well as his position as head of the Church of England would indicate him as person of faith.) He commented on his own belief of light having victory over darkness and how everyone can be sparks of that light.

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Sebastian's First Christmas Message

Christmas is a time of memories and celebrations. This year we remember not just my Papa, who we lost so abruptly, but we remember so many more. My heart immediately recalls the thousands that I met during my walkabouts. In those darkest days, the incredible outpouring of affection and condolences I have received, along with the rest of my family, provided me the strength to face the days that were yet to come and days still yet to come.

And despite the absence of one familiar laugh at our Christmas this year, I have no doubt that the Christmas my family celebrates will be filled with joy.

Christmas provides us with a moment to slow down, to reflect on what has come throughout the preceding year, and indeed there is much to reflect upon. But not all of it has been as tragic as the passing of my Papa.

We also remember the celebration and joy I was able to share with you all around my own engagement to the Duke of Cambridge. And I look forward, in the year to come, to my wedding.

In the days to come, we will be reminded that life is ever changing. The United Kingdom and indeed the world, is not the same it was when my great grandmother became queen, and in some ways, I embody that change. While we may often miss how things were or look with fondness on our memories of days gone by, we must also remember that change can be good. Change can indeed, be healing, and that the greatest, most healing changes, often go unnoticed at their start.

Holy scripture tells us that the most joyous and world altering change of all, happened in the most unnoticeable of ways, starting in the feeding trough of farm animals, yet from those humble beginnings, grew everlasting light and life and formed the bedrock of faith for so many, myself included.

I am certain that someone, somewhere, today, will remark that Christmas is a time for children. Perhaps however that's an oversimplification of it. Christmas is indeed a time for children, but it speaks to the child within all of us. Far too often, when we, as adults, become distracted and weighted with worry, we fail to see joy in the simple things. Joy that children do not miss. Let us take this season to allow the children within us each to take time and take joy in the simple things. After all, it is with the birth of a child, that we see new dawns and are met with endless potential.

My great grandmother was particularly fond of what the carol reminds us, that 'the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.'

While it is no question that Christmas is of course a Christian celebration, that search for light, for a torch to shine light in the darkness and that light overcomes darkness, speaks to people of all faiths and of none.

It is that search and hope for light, whatever you take that to mean, that drives us together in community. I think specifically of those wonderfully kind people who so generously give food or donation, or that most precious commodity of all, their time, to support those in need around them. It is in those people, we see light clearing away darkness.

So whatever faith you have or if you have none, it is in this life giving light and with the true humility that lies in our service to others that I believe we can find hope for the future. Let us celebrate that light together. And let us cherish it always. With all my heart, I wish each of you a truly happy Christmas filled with peace, love, happiness, and everlasting light.

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Type

Statement, Political (Manifesto)

Medium

Digital Recording, Video