In 1957, Queen Elizabeth II made history with a big step forward. 

Queen Elizabeth II made her first Christmas broadcast in 1952, twenty years after her grandfather, King George V, began the tradition. However, in 1957, Queen Elizabeth became the first monarch to make a televised address on Christmas. 

As her image was beamed into homes around the UK, Queen Elizabeth said ”Twenty-five years ago my grandfather broadcast the first of these Christmas messages. Today is another landmark because television has made it possible for many of you to see me in your homes on Christmas Day….it is inevitable that I should seem a rather remote figure to many of you… but now at least for a few moments I welcome you to the peace of my home.”

Queen Elizabeth II recorded her speech in the Long Library at Sandringham. With a bit of sleight of hand, the microphone on her desk was hidden behind a sprig of mistletoe. 

The wider Commonwealth and diplomacy was very much a focus in the broadcast. Queen Elizabeth said ”This year Ghana and Malaya joined our brotherhood… Last October I opened the new Canadian Parliament, and as you know this was the first time that any Sovereign had done so in Ottawa… Also during 1957 my husband and I paid visits to Portugal, France, Denmark, and the United States of America.”

It was another chapter in the Christmas tradition of a speech that would grow. Now, Christmas Day at 3pm, is reserved for the Monarch’s broadcast and it usually tops the festive TV ratings.