Have yourself a royally mundane Christmas: Prince William reveals the banal truth

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with their children, Prince Louis, Princess Charlotte and Prince George, attending a Christmas pantomime together in 2020. Photo / Getty Images

We tend to think we know what Christmas is like in the Royal family. The meet-up, the church walk, a slap-up lunch, the Queen's Christmas Message, maybe some party games in the evening. But while all that does still go on, rarely do we hear about the traditions within the family - the food, the music, the ways they pass the time. You suspect it would be through these that we'd really learn about them.

At the end of last week, the Duke of Cambridge gave a short interview that gave us more Christmas colour than we'd had in years. Talking to the in-house radio station at the Royal Marsden hospital in London, of which he has been president since 2007, the Duke answered questions from young patients about what exactly goes on behind palace doors.

The 15-foot-high Christmas tree in the Crimson Drawing Room at Windsor Castle in London. Photo / Getty Images

Lavish feasts, real reindeer, elves imported from Lapland? High-class entertainment, live performances and the finest music? Er, no. It turns out that the Cambridges are just as mundane as the rest of us; and their Christmas is almost impressively normal. If there are imported elves, he's not about to let slip.

First and foremost, the focus is on the meal, which is quite right. "Food is quite important to me at Christmas. I do tend to eat a lot at Christmas. There's always a tiny little bit of space left in my stomach somewhere for a bit more turkey or sausage or, you know, a bit of wine," he said.

His favourite film to watch? Nothing more than Will Ferrell's 2003 classic Elf. "It's very funny and I keep watching it every Christmas, it still makes me laugh." A film about a man raised in a bizarre institution who leaves, travels to America, and finds it difficult to adjust to life as a normal person, so constantly puts his foot in it? I wonder if Prince Harry likes it, too...

As for William's favourite Christmas song? "I find it so hard, because I love so many different types of songs..." Ah, the "Best of the Beatles" defence. "But for this particular chat, I'm going to say Feliz Navidad, because it's a bit different." In fairness, that's not "a bit different", William. "A bit different" would be choosing Einstürzende Neubauten's How Did I Die? and saying you're currently teaching Charlotte how to play it on the ukulele.

As he revealed more, you could be forgiven for raising an eyebrow, especially when we heard about the family games the Cambridges play on Christmas Day. This is a family with an eight-year-old, a six-year-old and a three-year-old, and yet apparently they undertake Monopoly marathons. "We're playing board games with the children quite a lot. We love Monopoly, that's good. And Risk, that's a good game. It goes on for hours, and usually everybody gets very cross because they lose." I would venture that isn't why they're cross, Wills.

Surely no child under the age 10 - and, in fact, no married couple under the age of 60 - ever plays Monopoly (try explaining the idea of income tax to a toddler)? Still, the idea of the future king and queen playing a game about owning various landmarks with their children, all of whom could also become king or queen, is enjoyable to picture. "See this one, George? That's Regent Street. Your great-granny pretty much owns all of that, so don't worry if you lose it in the game, because one day it's coming to you anyway. Though, me first. Same with Pall Mall..." you can imagine William explaining."

Anyway 'Free Parking' is a bit trickier, given we never have to pay for parking anywhere, but your mother might be able to teach you about that from back when she was a commo... I mean, from what she's read in books. Go ahead, Kate."

Something tells me the Cambridge's arguments aren't quite the same as those the rest of us have. But everybody does Christmas differently. You know that if you've ever spent it at somebody else's house and wondered why you're so sober at midday, or why you haven't opened your presents by 6pm, or why you're eating a Yorkshire pudding, or why you haven't sat through a mildly racist, unsolicited commentary on Love, Actually yet.

It certainly seems that the Cambridges have a surprising Christmas, given who they are - but not an unusual one. Maybe for them, spending every other day of the year being waited on, travelling the world, meeting strangers and enjoying rarefied glamour, the thing that makes Christmas special is being the most ordinary, paint-by-numbers family in all the land.

We wanted some detail about the Royal family at Christmas, and the reality is that they do the same things as the rest of us - listen to terrible music, watch cheesy films, eat too much, and end up arguing over board games. In their mundanity, they've achieved relatability. Job done.