Queen Elizabeth’s Christmas Message Recalls Diana’s Death

In a 10-minute broadcast that showed a lighter, more personal touch, Queen Elizabeth II delivered a Christmas message Thursday that contrasted the pain of Princess Diana’s death with the celebrations of her own 50th wedding anniversary.

“Joy and sadness are part of all our lives,” she said, sitting in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle, her favorite royal residence.

Breaking with past practice, her annual Christmas message was broadcast live around the world--instead of just in the 54-nation Commonwealth association of Britain and its former colonies.

“For the first time, the British monarch has given a modern speech in the tradition of reigning monarchs in Europe,” said Harold Brooks-Baker, publishing director of Burke’s Peerage.

In poignant television footage, Diana’s sons, Prince William, 15, and Prince Harry, 13, were shown walking with bowed heads into Westminster Abbey behind their mother’s casket Sept. 6.

But there were also scenes of the young princes laughing with their father, Prince Charles, before the Nov. 20 service of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey to celebrate the queen and Prince Philip’s golden wedding anniversary.

The queen said it was right that Westminster Abbey provided the setting for both her anniversary celebrations and Diana’s funeral--”one of them almost unbearably sad, and one, for Prince Philip and me, tremendously happy.”