Since the late 1960s, the Forestry Programme at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) has donated Christmas trees to the Swedish royal family. The trees are brought to the castle in Stockholm by voluntary students of the university and accepted by members of the royal family. The tradition has been going on for so long that Nordmann firs are known more commonly as “the King’s firs” in Sweden. The students also sell Christmas trees in the streets of the capital to raise money for their study trips.
For the last two years, Crown Princess Victoria and her daughter Princess Estelle, 3, have accepted the trees for the palace. Princess Estelle has always dressed in festive red and has seemed thrilled to receive her own, miniature Christmas tree both years.
This year, Prince Carl Philip and his wife Princess Sofia, who are celebrating their first Christmas as a married couple, were given the task when the trees arrived on Wednesday, December 16. It wasn’t the first time for the Prince, who last participated the reception of the Christmas trees in 2012. This year’s trees had been brought from Skåne County in southern Sweden and were delivered by seven students dressed in holiday outfits. The royal couple chatted and posed with the students and seemed to be in good holiday spirits. They received five trees, one of which was a smaller tree to be delivered to Haga Palace for Princess Estelle, who by now knows to wait for her very own tree.
Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia got married last June. Since then, Sofia has been an active member of the royal family and has even made a solo trip to South Africa to discuss children’s rights on behalf of her parents-in-law, King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia. The Prince, 36, and Princess, who turned 31 on December 6, are expecting their first child.
