I had written to The Queen and Prince Philip for Christmas, and as you may know, they spend their holiday break at Sandringham. The envelope is exactly the same as the ones from Buckingham Palace, except for the postmark. The back of the envelope features the Queen's Coat of Arms (seen below on the letter).
The letter arrived yesterday and took a little longer to arrive than normal, partly because I just moved and my mail is getting forwarded. A February reply for a Christmas note is perfectly reasonable. The Queen's staff are obviously very busy before Christmas, then on holiday and then taking a while to catch up on everything. I'm still waiting on a few more Christmas replies, which I hope/would expect by the end of the month.
Inside the envelope is a letter written by Mary Morrison, one of the Queen's Ladies in Waiting. Instead of the usual Buckingham Palace under the Queen's coat of arms, it says Sandringham House.
The letter says:
Dear Miss Daly,
The Queen wishes me to write and thank you for the letter you have sent to Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh for Christmas and the New Year, and for your kind words in advance of The Queen's ninetieth birthday.
Although unable to reply to you personally owning to the hundreds of letters she receives each day, Her Majesty much appreciated your thoughtful message at this time.
I am to thank you, once again, for your continuing support for The Queen and all Members of The Royal Family.
Yours Sincerely, Mary MorrisonFrom the reply, it's quite clear that Mary Morrison read my letter. The letter mentions that I had written to both the Queen and Philip. (I have written to both of them before, but this is the 1st reply I have gotten that acknowledges that.) It also mentions my "kind words" in advance of the Queen's 90th this year, as well as me talking about the royal family as a whole, which are not things every letter written to the Queen for Christmas are going to mention.
I know the Queen is given a selection of letters and cards to read over her Christmas break at Sandringham. Who knows if my letter was actually one of those. My letter may have just ended up at Sandringham because the Queen's Ladies-in-waiting wanted letters to reply to when they had a little downtime.
People receive replies, for their Christmas letter, from both Sandringham and Buckingham Palace. In fact last year, there was some mix up in their office and I received two replies from my Christmas letter. One from Sandringham and one from Buckingham. I do, however, feel like this year's letter is more personal than in the past.
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