Prince William's Christmas tradition that makes Kate Middleton and the Wales children 'cross'

Prince William's Christmas tradition is surprisingly relatable

Prince William's Christmas tradition is surprisingly relatable - Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince George and Princess Charlotte arriving for the Christmas carol concert
(Image credit: Getty)

Prince William's Christmas tradition is something that he once admitted makes wife Kate Middleton and the Wales' children 'cross'.


Prince William has admitted he has a Christmas tradition that makes his wife Kate Middleton and his three children 'cross' each year.

The Prince of Wales took part in a special chat with Radio Marsden, that serves the Royal Marsden Hospital which specialises in cancer care, and during the conversation Prince William was quizzed by some children about all things Christmas.

And like many children and adults across the UK, Christmas is the perfect time to play boardgames and a youngster called Henry asked the future king, "What is your favourite board game?"

To which Prince William, who is dad to Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, seven and Prince Louis, four, replied, "Henry, we are playing board games with the children quite a lot. We love Monopoly, that's good and Risk, have you played Risk before?

"That's a good board game, it goes on for hours and usually everyone gets very cross because they lose. But that's what I like playing."

Risk can take several hours or even days to complete. 

But by playing Monopoly Prince William is breaking one of the late Queen's rules, as the game used to get too 'vicious', instead the Queen preferred to play Bowling on the Wii Sports.


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Take over the world in this game of strategy conquest which features 300 updated figures, improved mission cards speed up the game, 12 secret missions are available in the game of global domination. Choose from three exciting ways to play.


In Risk, the goal is simple: players aim to conquer their enemies' territories by building an army, moving their troops in and engaging in battle. Depending on the roll of the dice, a player will either defeat the enemy or be defeated. This exciting game is filled with betrayal, alliances and surprise attacks. Defeat all of the enemy troops in a territory to conquer that territory and get one step closer to global conquest! The player who completes his or her secret mission first – and reveals the Secret Mission card to prove it – wins.

An updated version of the game is currently on offer, saving 36% on the RRP but such a shame it won't arrive before Christmas to spare the Wales' kids further pain. Maybe Kate can pick up Risk from Argos for the same price, as the new version has mission cards to "help speed up the game". 

It's understood that the game, when played with more than four people, lasts longer than an hour, so maybe that's the secret to keeping Kate and the kids happy - for William to play with fewer people.

But he's not the only one who struggles to keep the wife and kids engaged in board games, one Risk owner, said, "My daughter won the first game, well I had to engineer that one to keep her interested.

"She enjoys it, the wife not so much. Second game I won, third game my daughter triumphed again but by her own merit, she took on board to control Australia as soon as possible, I’ve also never seen anyone able to destroy massive armies or defend with so few troops.

They added, "This is still a game that can take a long time to complete, so don’t be tempted to add your rules or keep the cards counters sets to a fixed amount, it does speed up the game when you can trade in a set of cards that then increase the next time a set is traded in, eventually you can get large numbers of troops which can rebalance the game quickly or mop up the board."

Selina Maycock
Senior Entertainment Writer

Selina is currently a Senior Entertainment Writer for Goodto.com, formerly Senior Entertainment writer for Woman&Home, and My Imperfect Life with more than 16 years of experience in newspapers and magazines. She currently writes a mix of Entertainment news - including celebrity births, weddings, reporting the the latest news about the Royal kids Prince George, Charlotte, Louis, Archie and Lilibet as well as Family news stories from baby names to store closures and product recall warnings. Before joining Future Publishing, Selina graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2006 with a degree in Journalism. She is fully NCTJ and NCE qualified and has 100wpm shorthand. When she's not interviewing celebrities you can find her exploring new countryside walking routes, catching up with friends over good food, or making memories.