When he arrived, the royal chefs had been busy butchering the oxen in readiness for the following day’s officially titled Annual Christmas Distribution of prime beef to all those living on the Sandringham estate.

“Inside the coach-house, on long tables covered with white tablecloths, were laid scores of bloody joints of beef, one for each family, and each tagged with the name of the recipient”, recalled the King’s grandson and future King Edward VIII:

“Outside the stable yard, waiting their turn, were the gamekeepers, gardeners, foresters, and stable hands, or their wives – in all some three hundred people. My grandparents [King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra] with their family sat just inside near the door of the coach-house, and, as the employees walked out with their meat, the men touching their caps and women making a quick bob of a curtsy, the King wished each a Happy Christmas”.

The prime Windsor shorthorn beef, however, was not on the King’s own dinner menu for this, his first night at Sandringham for Christmas, when he joined the Queen along with the Princess Royal, Dukes of Fife and Connaught and his close friend the Marquis de Soveral from Portugal.

The vast royal meal of twelve dishes including a haunch of roast venison and quails, started with a rare delicacy of the era: Caviar de Sterlet.

Caviar was still yet to make its popularity in Britain, let alone from the Sterlet which was still almost unknown in the UK. This prized species of small sturgeon was known to be a favourite of Tsar Nicholas II who sent wooden boxes of the fish to both Queen Victoria and Edward VII each Christmas. There’s a good chance, therefore, that the Caviar de Sterlet on this menu -with its uniquely golden roe - was an imperial gift from the Russian Emperor.

In addition to the roe from the Sterlet, Herring roe (milt) also appears on the menu served just prior to dessert as Laitances à l’Indienne: the roe was poached in spiced stock and served as slices in small porcelain dishes coated in a béchamel or similar sauce.

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While the King and Queen were enjoying the homely family Christmas rituals of Sandringham, the Prince and Princess of Wales (future King George V and Queen Mary) were far away in India as guests of the Maharaja of Gwalior. 

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After the Princess of Wales had handed out gifts to the children of some of the Indian princely families, "the tree was given over to them to plunder at their hearts content", reported The Times before assuring readers "but none forgot their pretty inborn manners".