People want 'simple hug or squeeze of the hand', says Queen as she hopes for light after a dark year
The Queen has expressed her sorrow for all those who are mourning loved ones this Christmas after what she called a “dark” year.
“We need life to go on”, she said in her traditional Christmas message to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth and spoke about the darkest nights always being followed by a “new dawn”.
There has been much speculation about how the Monarch would sum up 2020, which has been the most challenging in living memory as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
So she focused her message on the light, which at this time of year “does more than just create a festive mood”, she said.
“Light brings hope” and she referred her faith as she spoke of Jesus being the “light of the world” for Christians even though “we can’t celebrate his birth today in quite the usual way”.
She acknowledged that at Christmas time, when many families would want to be together, it will be enormously tough.
Watch the Queen's speech in full
In an unusually personal moment, she said: “Of course, for many, this time of year will be tinged with sadness. Some mourning the loss of those dear to them and other missing friends and family members, distanced for safety. When all they really want for Christmas is a simple hug or a squeeze of the hand.”
She reached out to those who might be feeling that way and said: “If you are among them, you are not alone. And let me assure you of my thoughts and prayers.”
The Queen herself is not with the rest of the Royal Family at Sandringham this year, as she has done every year since 1988.
She is spending a “quiet” Christmas at Windsor Castle with the Duke of Edinburgh and the small group of staff who look after her on rotation, often called HMS Bubble.
Prince Charles and Camilla had planned to see the Queen and Prince Philip at Christmas, but as they are currently staying in Highgrove in Gloucestershire, which is in Tier 2, they are not permitted to travel to see his parents, as Windsor is in Tier 4. No households are allowed to mix on Christmas Day in Tier 4, unlike in other areas of the country.
The Queen had just the single photograph on the desk in front of her.
It was of a younger Prince Philip and Buckingham Palace said it was from her private collection.
There were no pictures of her sons and daughter, nor her grandchildren and she did not reference the departure from the Royal Family of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
She wanted this message to be about others and the suffering endured by so many, rather than on her own family’s difficulties which dominated so much of the news at the beginning of the year.
The Queen praised the NHS workers who had done so much for others.
This year’s 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, she said, had focused on someone who had “shone a lamp of hope across the world.”
In 2020, said the Queen, “our frontline services still shine that lamp for us supported by the amazing achievements of modern science and we owe them a debt of gratitude.”
And at a time when communities have come together to support those in need or to clap our NHS heroes, the Queen said: “We continue to be inspired by the kindness of strangers and draw comfort that even on the darkest nights there is hope in the new dawn.”
She praised the “indomitable spirit” of those who have risen to the challenge and she singled out for thanks the young people for the part that they have played.
She spoke too of people of all faiths who have, this year, been unable to gather as they would wish. She mentioned Passover, Easter, Eid, Vaisakhi and Diwali.
After noting how a year that has “necessarily kept us apart” also “brought us closer”, the Queen looked ahead to 2021.
"Let the light of Christmas, the spirit of selflessness, love and above all hope, guide us in the times ahead.”