Jars of chutney, rude shower caps and a Big Mouth Billy Bass… But don’t let the royals fool you. Their REAL Christmas presents down the years have been gold and jewellery so exquisite they belong in a museum

The Windsors are well-known for their home-spun, jokey gifts at this time of year. They rarely involve expense.

For her first Christmas at Sandringham in 2011, Catherine, now Princess of Wales, got into the spirit of things by giving Her Late Majesty a jar of marrow chutney, that she had made using her own grandmother’s recipe.

Prince Harry is reported to have once given the Queen a shower-cap with ‘Ain’t life a bitch’ embroidered on it, while Meghan is said to have proffered a singing hamster toy – which captivated the corgis.

And who could forget the Big Mouth Billy Bass singing fish that delighted Queen Elizabeth one year, a present from Prince Andrew? 

It wasn’t always this way, however. Presents were somewhat more extravagant in times past with some featuring jewels and gold of such quality they are now in the Royal Collection.

The Queen and Catherine arriving for the Sandringham Christmas Day Service in 2013.  Princess of Wales gave Her late Majesty a jar of marrow chutney made using her grandmother’s recipe

George III and Queen Charlotte with their children. They exchanged presents at 6pm on the 24th, a custom started by the then Queen, based on the German tradition of heligabend bescherung

The royal Christmas tree is admired by Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their children – an illustration depicting December 1848 which created a national tradition

In 1842 Prince Albert designed an exquisite brooch featuring a miniature enamel portrait of Princess Victoria, their first child

Since the time of George III and Queen Charlotte, presents are exchanged at 6pm on the 24th, a custom started by the then Queen, based on the German tradition of heligabend bescherung meaning, almost literally, the exchange of presents on Christmas Eve.

In the 19th century a table was set up for each person, on which their presents would be placed.

Queen Victoria who wrote a journal almost every day of her life – first described the tables from Christmas Eve 1836 when, still a princess, she received ‘from dear Uncle Leopold, a beautiful turquoise ring; [and] from the Queen a fine piece of Indian gold tissue.’

It was after her marriage to Prince Albert in 1840 that Royal Christmases started to become the sort of thing we recognise today.

An 1848 engraving of the Prince and Queen with their children decorating a tree proved an inspiration and marked the effective start of what has become a tradition.

 Albert gave his wife a gold and champlevé enamel bracelet, with each link containing a miniature portrait of one of their children at the age of four

On the reverse side, the names were engraved and a lock of their hair encased

Prince Albert was particularly keen on giving his wife sentimental jewels.

In 1842, he designed an exquisite brooch featuring a miniature enamel portrait of Princess Victoria, their first child. It became one of Queen Victoria’s most treasured piece.

Vicky is painted as a winged cherub looking upwards, with her hands together holding a pearl necklace from which is suspended a real ruby and diamond cross.

The delicate be-jewelled wings are set with diamonds, sapphires, rubies, emeralds and yellow topazes in gold.

In her journal that evening the Queen wrote: ‘One of the things I value the most is an enamel of ‘Pussy’ […], dear Albert was so pleased at my delight.’

Three years later, Prince Albert gave his wife a gold and champlevé enamel bracelet, with each link containing a miniature portrait of one of their children at the age of four.

When he gave it to her in 1845, it featured Princess Victoria alone. But this was added to with each of the next five children – with their names engraved and a lock of their hair encased, on the back.

Each portrait had four natural pearls at the corners of the blue enamelled square link

Perhaps however the most sumptuous of bejewelled Christmas presents is not in Britain but the Netherlands. This is the Ruby parure created by the oldest surviving jeweller in the world – Mellerio, in Paris.

Princess Juliana of the Netherlands  wears the ruby parure tiara, a pair of earrings and stomacher 

Queen Maxima is pictured in  Amsterdam  wearing the ruby parure tiara, necklace, bracelet and the earrings

Henry VIII would take anyone, who gave him a present to the Tower of London to choose a reciprocal present

At Christmas 1888 King Willem of the Netherlands gave his second wife Emma, the diamond and ruby parure, which consisted of a tiara, a necklace, a stomacher, a pair of earrings, a bracelet and a brooch was designed with the classic motifs of the Belle Epoque – festoons and scrolls. The tiara is often worn by Queen Maxima.

Henry VIII was perhaps the most generous to his noble subjects, according to Louise Cooling in A Royal Christmas – anyone who gave him a Christmas gift, was invited to the Jewel House at the Tower of London on New Year’s Day to choose a reciprocal present.

Not the crown jewels I hasten to add!

• Josie Goodbody is a jewellery writer and the author of mystery novels