Queen's Christmas day speech: Monarch honours Prince Philip with precious snap and a special brooch

The UK's Queen Elizabeth II has delivered an unusually personal Christmas message this year, honoring her late husband Prince Philip by appearing with a treasured photograph and rocking a special brooch.

The Queen opted for a red embossed wool shift dress for the event. She also wore the same sapphire chrysanthemum brooch as in the photograph, which she also wore at her honeymoon photoshoot in the Broadlands in 1947.

Pictures released by Buckingham Palace ahead of her annual message to the British people show a framed photo of herself and the late Duke of Edinburgh looking at each other fondly during their diamond wedding anniversary in 2007.

In her Christmas Day message, the 95-year-old monarch shared the pain she felt after the death of her husband as she encouraged people everywhere to celebrate with friends and family, despite the grief caused by a pandemic now stretching into its second year.

The Queen said she understood the difficulty of spending the holiday season “with one familiar laugh missing,” the monarch delivered her address beside a framed photograph of her arm-in-arm with Prince Philip, who took his last breath in April at age 99. 

On her right shoulder was the same sapphire chrysanthemum brooch she wore in the photo — a glittering statement pin that she also wore as a newlywed.

“Although it’s a time of great happiness and good cheer for many, Christmas can be hard for those who have lost loved ones,” the queen said in the prerecorded message broadcast when many British families were enjoying their traditional Christmas dinner. “This year, especially, I understand why.’’

Despite her own loss, the queen said her family was a “source of great happiness, noting that she had welcomed four great-grandchildren this year.

“While COVID again means we can’t celebrate quite as we may have wished, we can still enjoy the many happy traditions, be it the singing of carols — as long as the tune is well known — decorating the tree, giving and receiving presents or watching a favorite film where we already know the ending,” she said. “It’s no surprise that families so often treasure their Christmas routines.”

The annual Christmas message to the people of the U.K. and the Commonwealth marks the end of a busy and sometimes difficult year for the queen.

In closing her Christmas message, the queen noted that the holiday is often seen as a time for children. But, she said, this is “only half the story.”

“Perhaps it’s truer to say that Christmas can speak to the child within us all. Adults, when weighed down with worries, sometimes fail to see the joy in simple things where children do not. And for me and my family, even with one familiar laugh missing this year, there will be joy in Christmas.”