Royal Christmas message

[6] 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.

[7] 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.

'"[8] 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.

[4] King George VI's daughter and successor, Queen Elizabeth II, delivered her first Christmas message from her study at Sandringham House, at 3:07 PM on 25 December 1952, approximately ten months after her father's death.

[10] It was reported by The Daily Telegraph that this decision was made after the BBC decided to screen an interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, on its current affairs programme Panorama.

[13] Buckingham Palace was reported to have stated: "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.

[14] Her son and successor, King Charles III, reportedly writes the script of his Christmas messages himself without input from staff.

[citation needed] The message typically combines a chronicle of that year's major events, with specific focus on the Commonwealth of Nations, and with the sovereign's own personal milestones and feelings on Christmas.

Planning for each year's address begins months earlier, when the monarch establishes a theme and appropriate archival footage is collected and assembled; the actual speech is recorded a few days prior to Christmas.

In addition, beginning in 1986, US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev exchanged televised New Year's Day addresses to the other's respective nations.