King Charles honored his deceased mother Queen Elizabeth II in his first Christmas broadcast as monarch Sunday.
It was the first time that someone other than the Queen delivered Britain’s annual Christmas Day broadcast since 1957. The new King thanked the public for showing “love and sympathy” to the Royal family in the wake of her death. (RELATED: The Queen’s Chef Reveals The One And Only Dish That She Ever Sent Back)
“I am reminded of the deeply touching letters, cards and messages which so many of you have sent my wife and myself and I cannot thank you enough for the love and sympathy you have shown our whole family,” he said.
“Christmas is a particularly poignant time for all of us who have lost loved ones,” he added. “We feel their absence at every familiar turn of the season and remember them in each cherished tradition.”
“In the much-loved carol ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ we sing of how ‘in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light,’ King Charles said. “My mother’s belief in the power of that light was an essential part of her faith in God, but also her faith in people—and it is one which I share with my whole heart. It is a belief in the extraordinary ability of each person to touch, with goodness and compassion, the lives of others, and to shine a light in the world around them.”
Last Christmas, the Queen talked about “passing the baton” to the next generation in her address to the United Kingdom and Commonwealth.