Queen Elizabeth Showed Her "Human Side" at Christmas With One "Compassionate" Gesture

Queen Elizabeth in a blue coat standing in front of a Christmas tree — (Image credit: Getty Images)

Although Christmas at Sandringham is a special royal celebration, there are many other people who live on the monarch’s vast private estate. Located in Norfolk, the 20,000-acre property is home to some of the Royal Family’s former employees who live in properties dotted throughout the area. Former royal butler Paul Burrell exclusively tells Marie Claire that despite the hectic schedule for Queen Elizabeth during the holiday season, she always made time for one touching gesture.

Speaking on behalf of Casino.org, Burrell says that the late Queen “took care of everyone,” and over Christmas, she would make sure to visit “the many estate workers who had retired and were living in grace-and-favour accommodation on the estate.” A grace-and-favour home is provided to a former employee by the monarch as a thank you for their years of service, and Burrell explains that Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother would spend time with “former grooms, gardeners, or retired household staff.“

“And do you know what? That meant the world to them,” the former butler says. “To know they hadn’t been forgotten. For the [late] Queen and the Queen Mother to take time out of their own Christmas to visit them—it was everything.”

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Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother looking at ornaments on a Christmas tree, both dressed in blue coats — Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother are seen admiring ornaments on a Christmas tree in 1998.

Queen Elizabeth wearing a green coat walking with a vicar and the Queen Mother outside church at Sandringham in 1988 — Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother are pictured with the vicar of St. Mary Magdalene Church on Christmas Day 1988.

Burrell says that some of the former employees had worked for the Royal Family “for 40 years or more, giving up their lives to royal service.” That being said, Queen Elizabeth “felt the very least she could do was visit them, take them a Christmas pudding or a box of crackers…something to make their day special. That was the real, human side of her.”

Burrell served Queen Elizabeth as a footman for 11 years before working as a butler to Princess Diana and her family until the royal’s 1997 death. He tells Marie Claire that he saw the late Queen’s caring side “firsthand.”

Explaining that he was “badly hurt and had to be hospitalized” during a trip to America with the late Queen, Burrell says that he later asked Her Majesty about the hospital bill. “She simply said, ‘Oh, don’t worry about that. It’s all taken care of,’” Burrell recalls. “I couldn’t believe it.”

“The Queen truly cared," he adds, calling her "an extraordinarily generous woman."

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Kristin Contino is Marie Claire's Senior Royal and Celebrity editor. She's been covering royalty since 2018—including major moments such as the Platinum Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth II’s death and King Charles III's coronation—and places a particular focus on the British Royal Family's style and what it means.

Prior to working at Marie Claire, she wrote about celebrity and royal fashion at Page Six Style and covered royalty from around the world as chief reporter at Royal Central. Kristin has provided expert commentary for outlets including the BBC, Sky News, US Weekly, the Today Show and many others.

Kristin is also the published author of two novels, “The Legacy of Us” and “A House Full of Windsor.” She's passionate about travel, history, horses, and learning everything she can about her favorite city in the world, London.