King Willem-Alexander & Queen Maxima - Christmas Reply (2015)

Today, I received a Christmas Card for the Netherlands!

I wasn't sure what to expect since I hadn't written to the King Willem-Alexander & Queen Maxima for Christmas before. Although, I have written to them once before.

The envelope looks almost exactly like before. Except the price of postage has gone up of few cents. The message under the Blue Crown reads "Dienst Van Het Koninklijk Huis" (Bureau of the Royal Household)

Inside was a card, with a lovely winter scene, and typed message on the inside.

The Message is in Dutch and reads:

His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen thank you, on behalf of the entire royal family, for your heartfelt Christmas greeting.  

They wish you all the best for the New Year! 

Noordeinde Palace 

The Hague

It is a very lovely message and card. But my favorite part was the back. This card was produced by Belarto in the Netherlands to raise money for UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund). It's really great to see them using their Christmas Card to support such a great cause.

King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima have been long supporters of UNICEF and the United Nations. Both of them have sat on advisory boards for the United Nations.

Queen Máxima is currently a United Nations Secretary General’s Special Advocate. She is working with their Inclusive Finance for Development program, which helps and encourages countries to create financial programs, such as savings accounts, insurance, loans.

This is definitely one of my top Christmas Cards this year.

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The Cambridges - Christmas (2015)

Today, I received a Christmas reply from the Cambridges. It is their standard reply, a postcard-sized picture with typed note on the back. The photo is from Princess Charlotte's christening on July 5th. It is one of two photos that have been released of the whole Cambridge Family. The message on the card is the exact same as the message on their Christmas Card last year, except for the addition of Princess Charlotte's name.

The card reads:

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince George and Princess Charlotte are so grateful to you for the kind message you sent at Christmas and send you their best wishes for a very Happy New Year. 

We saw this same christening photo used for Princess Charlotte's Christening reply. This is not the 1st time they have sent the same photo on two replies. Last year, Harry's Birthday and Christmas reply used the same photo and so did George's 1st birthday and Catherine's announcement of her 2nd pregnancy.

The Cambridges choose not to use the Christmas picture they released last month, on their reply. That was likely used on their personal Christmas Cards to Family and Friends.

We still have a bunch of Christmas replies we are waiting on, I would expect we will be waiting for replies till the end of this month, or early next month.

I looked back at my Christmas replies from last year, the last one came in March.  It was from Denmark. They have a pretty great response time in getting their replies out, but the Crown Prince Couple usually sends their replies economy which means it taken forever to arrive. Sometimes up to 45 days in the mail.

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Prince Albert & Princess Charlene of Monaco - Christmas Reply (2015)

A very lovely reply arrived today from Monaco, for the Christmas letter I sent Prince Albert & Princess Charlene.

I knew exactly what to expect when I saw this in the mail today. There is no mistaking that this was from the Monaco royals. And since they were nice enough to already release a photo of their Christmas card, I knew exactly what was inside.

One of the interesting things about Monaco's reply are the stamps. This stamp marks the 47th International Bouquet Contest, which happened in June 2014. (The stamp was released in February 2014, which makes it older than the twins!) The bouquet on the stamp won the Golden Badge in the category "Danse/Dance" in 2013.

My guess is they constantly get new stamps in their office to mark upcoming events, so they cycle through stamps before they had a chance to finish using them all. And since it is the end of the year they are trying to use up all the old ones. The stamp from the Crown Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella's Birthday was a few months old as well.

The front of the card features a lovely photo of the family. What was really interesting is that the photo is attached to the card, not printed directly on it. This makes it a higher quality picture. 

The red "AC" at the top is the couple's joint monogram. 

The message on the inside is repeated in French, English and Monégasque, and reads:

"All our Best Wishes for a Merry Christmas and a New Year 2016 filled with joy."

Prince Albert and Princess Charlene's signatures are printed on. All the responses I have gotten, use the same signature.


One thing that was very interesting about this reply, was the envelope featured Princess Charlene's Monogram on the back. Usually, when the couple is sending things jointly, they use their joint Monogram.

It could just be a mix up in their office. However, the Twins birthday response came in an envelope with no monogram. I had expected it to have the couple's joint monogram like the twins birth reply did last year. So, it could be they ran out of envelopes with the joint monogram on them, which is why this and the birthday response didn't have it.

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Crown Prince Jacques & Princess Gabriella of Monaco - 1st Birthday (2015)

It was quite exciting to find this reply waiting for me at home when I returned from my Christmas holiday. The card is from Prince Albert and Princess Charlene of Monaco. I had written to them for their twins, Crown Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella's, 1st Birthday on December 10th.

The postmarks and stamps from Monaco are always really interesting. This postmark features a nativity scene and with the words "Joyeuses Fetes," which is French for Happy Holidays. The stamp is for the Monaco Yacht Show, which was September 23-26th.

One of the interesting things about the envelope was that it didn't feature any monogram/ cypher on the back. Replies sent from Prince Albert and Princess Charlene usually feature their joint monogram, a red "AC" with a crown on top.

Inside was a bi-lingual thank-you card. The card is written in both French and English. The top of the card features Jacques and Gabriella's monogram as well as the Royal Family's coat of arms.

One of the interesting things about this card was the use of the term Crown Prince. We have seen Prince Jacque been called both Crown Prince and Hereditary Prince. They both mean the same thing, that Jacque is the heir apparent.

Crown Prince/ss is the more common term used by other european monarchs, but I feel like Hereditary Prince has been used more by Monaco historically. In French, there is just one term "Prince Héréditaire" which is always used.

The card says:

Their Serene Highnesses Prince and Princess of Monaco were very touched by your kind wishes, sent on the occasion of the 1st birthday of H.S.H. Crown Prince Jacques and H.S.H. Princess Gabriella, and would like to thank you most sincerely. 

Prince Albert and Princess Charlene gave an interview to mark the Twin's 1st birthday. (It is bilingual- both French and English with subtitles).

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Queen Margrethe & Prince Henrik of Denmark- Christmas (2015)

The 1st response to my Christmas letters arrived today. Although this was one of the 1st letters I managed to mail out, I certainly wasn't expecting a reply so quickly! The letter comes from Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik of Denmark.

I had previously written to their son, Crown Prince Frederik, and Crown Princess Mary.  Their replies were usually sent Economy and often took 45 days to arrive. This letter was mailed Priority and took 6 days to arrive.

The envelope looks similar to one I have received when writing to the Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary, except the crown on the card and the back of the envelope was blue instead of black.

The letter is a typical Christmas response, it has a generic message. But the letter is personalized with my name, the date the letter was written and the signature of Ingelise Riedel is hand-signed.

The letter reads:

Miss Gertrude Alexandra Daly(Address) 

Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness the Prince Consort have asked me to thank you for your kind Christmas Greetings, which Her Majesty and His Royal Highness appreciated very much to receive.  

Yours Sincerely, 

Ingelise Riedel 

Personal Assistant to Her Majesty the Queen

If you still want to mail Christmas Cards to the Royals, there is still time. We have reached that point where if you are mailing internationally, your letter may not arrive by Christmas.  But as long as you get your card out in a reasonable time it is fine if it doesn't arrive on time. It takes a while for royals to send out replies.

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Prince Harry - Birthday Reply (2015)

Today I received a reply from Prince Harry for the birthday message I sent in September.

This reply certainly came a lot quicker than Prince William's birthday reply this year, which was an unheard of 4 months, which is the longest response time I've received so far. Clarence House had been backed up most of the summer, with the huge number of correspondences for Princess Charlotte's birth and then taking time off for the summer holiday.

This reply was mailed on October 30th, 1.5 months after Prince Harry's birthday. Last year's reply is postmarked October 3rd, so quite a bit quicker, but the delay in this year's response is understandable given Clarence House's busy summer and still falls into the normal response time.

The front of the card features a photo by Chris Jackson, who coincidently also took the picture featured on Prince Harry's birthday response from last year. The photo was taken September 30th when Harry joined Walking with the Wounded for part of their 1,000-mile "Walk of Britain."

The reply on the back of the card is your standard birthday message. The message reads:

Prince Harry was touched you took the trouble to write as you did on the occasion of his 31st birthday.

It really was most thoughtful of you and His Royal Highness sends you his warmest thanks and best wishes.

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Queen Elizabeth - Longest Reign Reply (2015)

A letter came today from Buckingham Palace. I had written to Queen Elizabeth on the occasion of her becoming the longest-reigning monarch in British History. 

The envelope is the usual from the British royals. 

The back of the envelope features the Queen's coat of arms. 

It is your basic form letter, the exact same most people will receive if they wrote to the Queen for this occasion. 

The letter reads: 

Buckingham Palace 

The Queen thanks you for the message you have sent on the occasion of Her Majesty becoming the longest reigning Monarch in British history.  

The Queen is very touched by the support and affection she has received throughout her long reign, and thanks you so much for your thoughtfulness in writing at this time. 

October 2015

There isn't really too much to say about the letter. Even though this isn't the most exciting of letters, it will definitely hold a special place in my collection, since it represents such a defining moment in British History.  

The Queen became the longest-reigning British monarch on 9th September 2015, having reigned 63 years, 216 days.

Prince Charles, if he ascended to the throne today, would have to live and reign to age 130, to surpass the Queen. And for every additional year of the Queen's reign, you would have to add 2 years to his "must reign too" age. 

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