January Q&A (2018)

As always, post your Royal Questions & I will get to them as soon as possible.

Please post your Cambridge Royal Baby 3 question on our Special Q&A Page.

Question 1: Have you ever seen anyone get a reply from Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands?

Answer: I have seen the odd reply from Princess Beatrix over the years, but I have never gotten a reply from her. Not that I've sent too many letters to her since I started.

Question 2: What is customary, to write for the birth of the child or for his/her christening? Or both? 

Answer: Writing for both is fine. The Birth & Christening are two separate events usually months apart.

I more commonly write for the Birth. I usually only write for the christening if it's someone I follow particularly closely.

Question 3: I accidentally forgot to send out Duchess Sarah's Christmas card with the rest and only got around to posting it a few days before Christmas. I live in Europe so it probably got there after the holidays. Do you think I'll still get a reply? 

Answer: Yes, you should still get a reply. A few days before Christmas is fine. A few days after Christmas is fine as well. It may just take longer for you to get a reply.

Also, there is always a chance if you write too late that they've run out of the nice Christmas cards and you get a different reply.

Writing to late could also mean the difference between a more personal reply and a generic one. But at Christmas with all the mail, all the replies tend to be pretty generic. And Sarah doesn't tend to send out all that personal of a reply anyway.

But don't worry. I realized I accidentally forgot to send my letter to Charles & Camilla, so it got out a bit late as well.

Question 4: What's the mailing address for Princess Michael of Kent? I can't seem to find it on your blog.

Answer: You can write to her at:

Kensington Palace
London W8 4PU 
UNITED KINGDOM 

We didn't have the Prince & Princess Michael of Kent listed on our page with Royal Addresses since (1) They aren't working royals, (2) Royal.UK doesn't give an official address to contact them, (3) nor does the Prince or Princess Michael of Kent's official website. 

But since people keep asking for it, and they do occasionally reply to letters, I've added their address to the list.  Just be aware as non-working Royals, they don't always send a reply to letters. I've written to them a few times over the years and have only ever gotten one reply. 

Question 5: Do you use special paper or stationery when you write a letter to royals? And do you write your return address on the letter itself? 

Answer: I have some nice paper that I bought. It's ivory colored, and has a little more weight than regular copy paper. But you don't need anything special paper. Then I use a template on my computer to create something like stationary.

I have my address across the top of my letters. You should definitely have your return address somewhere on your letter so they don't have to worry about keeping the letter and envelope together.

Question 6: Do you think they have mailed out all the Christmas and twins’ birthday replies from Monaco? I sent them a letter in early December and I still haven’t gotten a reply to either of them.

Answer: Don't worry, I'm sure they are still sending out replies. They got so much mail over the holidays it takes them a while to send out all the replies. A normal response time is 1-2 months. I've gotten plenty of Christmas Replies in February and even the occasional one in March.

Monaco tends to be pretty timely with replies, but since it's been less than 2 months I wouldn't start worrying.

Question 7: Are you going to write a birthday letter to The Duchess of Kent next month? Why have you never written to her? I have got a few nice responses from her office.

Answer: For the Queen's Cousins I usually only write to them if they have milestone birthday, or if there is some other big thing like an illness. The Duchess of Kent hasn't had a milestone birthday, since I started writing. So I never got around to sending her a letter. But I likely will this year as this is her 85th Birthday.