Prince Harry was once left confused after receiving an unusual Christmas gift from one of his royal relativesGeorgia Burns Trainee Trends, Showbiz and Lifestyle Writer and Sophia Papamavroudi
13:14, 20 Dec 2025
Prince Harry had quite a gift exchange during Christmas(Image: Variety via Getty Images)
Prince Harry once received an unusual “cold blooded” present from a member of the royal family at Christmas. Although the Duke of Sussex is now estranged from the royals, he was once very close to them before his high profile departure in 2020.
The Royal Family is known for their humorous gag gifts at Christmas, which they traditionally exchange on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day in keeping with their German heritage. Before stepping down from royal duties, Prince Harry would spend Christmas with his family and he reportedly followed the tradition every year, as he was said to be into the humorous gifts himself.
In his memoir Spare, he recalled receiving the unusual gift from his great-aunt, the late Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret – whom he affectionately referred to as “Aunt Margo”. The Duke admitted that, despite sharing “12.5 percent” of her DNA, he didn’t know Margaret very well.
He wrote: “I didn’t know Princess Margaret, whom I called Aunt Margo. She was my great-aunt, yes, we shared 12.5% of our DNA, we spent the bigger holidays together, and yet she was almost a total stranger. Like most Britons, I mainly knew of her.”
Princess Margaret got Prince Harry a unusual gift for Christmas(Image: GettyImages)
The prince went on to explain: “We were at Sandringham in a big room with a long table covered with white cloth and white name cards. By custom, at the start of the night, each of us located our place, stood before our mound of presents. Then suddenly, everyone began opening at the same time.
“Standing before my pile, I chose to open the smallest present first. The tag said: From Aunt Margo. I looked over, called out: ‘Thank you, Aunt Margo!'”.
It turned out thatPrincess Margaret had gifted him a ‘special’ biro, complete with a rubber fish wrapped around it, the Express reports.
Speaking about the gift in his memoir, Harry recalled: “I tore off the paper. It was… A biro? I said: Oh. A biro. Wow. She said: Yes. A biro. I said: Thank you so much. But it wasn’t just any biro, she pointed out. It had a tiny rubber fish wrapped around it. I said: Oh. A fish biro! OK. I told myself: That is cold-blooded.”
The prince also reflected that he and Princess Margaret “should’ve been friends” as the Firm’s “two spares”.
He wrote: “Now and then, as I grew older, it struck me that Aunt Margo and I should’ve been friends. We had so much in common. Two Spares.”
Harry continued: “Her relationship with Granny wasn’t an exact analogue of mine with Willy, but pretty close. The simmering rivalry, the intense competition (driven largely by the older sibling), it all looked familiar.
“Aunt Margo also wasn’t that dissimilar from Mummy. Both rebels, both labelled as sirens.”