Royal Family Unveils Christmas Card Photo of Queen Elizabeth and Baby King Charles from 1949

For this holiday season, the British royal family gave us a blast from the past with a throwback portrait featuring the late Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles as an infant.

In honor of the royal family unveiling their annual Christmas card earlier this month, the Royal Collection Trust released not one, but two holiday greetings sent in the early 1900s. The first card (posted on the charity’s official Instagram page) shows a grainy portrait of a then-Princess Elizabeth smiling and holding up baby Charles.

Per the caption, the portrait was chosen for her Christmas card released in 1949, approximately three years before Elizabeth became the Queen of England. Meanwhile, the second slide features an old portrait (taken in December of 1938, but sent out in 1939) of King George VI posing next to his wife and two daughters. And standing beside Princess Elizabeth is her very first corgi named Dookie. 

As we said before, this royal throwback was shared right after King Charles and his wife, Queen Camilla, unveiled their Christmas card for 2023. The portrait, which was posted on the royal family’s IG page, shows the king, 75, and queen, 76, dressed in royal regalia while posing in the Throne Room of Buckingham Palace.