It’s well documented—not least in Pablo Larraín’s 2021 film Spencer—that Princess Diana did not enjoy spending Christmas with the rest of the royal family. “It was highly fraught,” she told royal biographer Andrew Morton in Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words. “[It was] terrifying and so disappointing. No boisterous behavior, lots of tension, silly behavior, silly jokes that outsiders would find odd, but insiders understood. I sure was [an outsider].”
Still, Diana continued to join the Windsors for Christmas Day even after her separation from Prince Charles was announced in 1992, often turning to her assortment of colorful coat dresses and skirt suits—her form of armor, if you will—for the occasion. Indeed, some of her most iconic looks are from the festive period, including the red coat, black hat, and veil that she wore on Christmas Day in 1993, which was recreated in Spencer and seemingly referenced by a young Kate Middleton back in 2006.
Below, revisit all of Princess Diana’s best Christmas Day looks over the years.
