Thursday December 25, 2025 | UNITED KINGDOM [Posted in VICTORIA, BC – 3:03 am PT | Updated 1:08 pm PT]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
[UPDATE: Content of speech is summarized below]
King Charles III will deliver his Christmas Message 2025 from Westminster Abbey.
According to British press, he is expected to talk about the “pilgrimage” of life, and the lessons it can teach about the issues of the day, in a message broadcast at 3 pm London Time (7 am PT) on Christmas Day, December 25.
Earlier this month, The King delivered a speech about responding well to cancer treatment.
New setting this year:
Last year the speech was given in the Fitzrovia Chapel, which once served hospital staff — a symbolic location for a message focusing on the King’s thanks for health workers.
This year’s setting is below the Lady Chapel’s medieval vaulted ceiling, in a chapel where 15 previous kings and queens are buried, including Elizabeth I, Mary I and Charles II.
It also means that for a second year the Christmas message won’t be delivered from behind a desk inside a palace, as Queen Elizabeth II used to do.
Reusing the Christmas trees:
For this year’s speech, King Charles will be seen standing in front of Christmas trees as brought to decorate the Abbey for the Princess of Wales’s carol concert held earlier this month.
There could be a message in that as to environmental conservation and frugality.
About today’s speech: [Update after 7 am PT televised delivery]
King Charles III today delivered his prerecorded speech within a theme of pilgrimage. He said it’s not a word used much today but that he was struck with the idea after he and Queen Camilla journeyed to the Vatican earlier this year to pray together with Pope Leo. The King called that a historic moment of spiritual unity.
Today’s world is undergoing a pilgrimage of hope, said King Charles today, in that people are “journeying forward” into the future while also “into the past to learn its lessons”.
He said he was struck by the young age of people who fought and died in world wars, calling them “young people who fought and helped save us in both world wars”. This sounds similar to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s message about youth stepping up to get us through the tough times ahead in Canada.
The religious aspect of Charles’ message today was about the pilgrimage aspect of the Christmas story — Jesus himself journeying to the earth from heaven, his parents arriving homeless in Bethlehem, the wise men and shepherds journeying to find and meet the new spiritual king.
King Charles says today’s journey for the world is to ensure that “right triumphs over wrong”. He hopes that people can “cherish the rewards of compassion and reconciliation”.
To do unto others as we would want others to do for us was King Charles’ closing message — the message that Jesus came to deliver and that the King hopes is also a prayer for our communities today.
The speech itself was just over six minutes long, within a telecast of about eight minutes.
Tradition of televised speeches:
The tradition of an annual Christmas broadcast from the monarch by which to reflect on the year past and delivering some commentary on current events, dates back to 1932 when King George V delivered a speech on the radio.
The first televised Christmas speech was delivered by Queen Elizabeth II in 1957.
===== RELATED:
- The King’s 2024 Christmas Day message (December 25, 2024)
- 70th Jubilee: Queen Elizabeth’s nod to Charles & Camilla (February 6, 2022)
- Queen’s Christmas message emphasizes peace (December 25, 2018)
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