As Princess Diana herself put it, the royal family’s traditional Christmas celebrations at Sandringham were “highly fraught,” once calling the experience “terrifying and so disappointing.” The late Princess of Wales relayed these sentiments to ...

Not everyone loves the idea of a Christmas stacked to the brim with tradition after tradition, and for Princess Diana, the thought of enjoying the holidays with her fellow royals at times made her feel so uptight that she would often ditch the festivities as soon as she possibly could.

It's no secret that Princess Diana wasn't a fan of celebrating Christmas with her royal in-laws. Her relationship with the Royal Family—especially during the festive season—was often strained, and as her former butler Paul Burrell recently told Marie Claire, she found Christmas at Sandringham to be "like a pressure cooker."