With the Queen and Prince Philip now firmly ensconced at Sandringham for the festive period is it surely imperative that attention is paid to every detail of their stay.
Chief among those concerns is to make sure the Queen’s Christmas mail gets to her on time.
Which is why the Royal Mail dispatched a driver from King’s Lynn delivery office 150 miles south to Dorking, in Surrey, to pick up a van capable of making deliveries to Sandringham in all weathers.
The Peugeot van, in the Royal Mail’s traditional red livery, is understood to have a higher clearance than others in the firm’s fleet, allowing it to be driven along the estate’s narrow roads and tracks even in snowy weather.
But once the Queen has left Sandringham for her return to London the vehicle will be driven 150 back to its Dorking depot.
The new Royal Mail van seen leaving Sandringham after dropping off the Christmas post on Friday.
The arrangements are said to have caused amusement among Royal Mail staff in Dorking.
One resident of the Surrey market town, said: “My postman recently said to me excitedly ‘You’ll never guess what they’ve done now. They’ve sent a driver down from King’s Lynn to our depot to pick up one of our delivery vans, so it can be used to deliver the mail to the Queen while she’s at Sandringham.”
The 74-year-old, who works as an actuary, added: “What’s odd is that according to my postman it’s only for the Christmas period. It’s quite funny really.”
Among those invited to spend Christmas with the Queen at Sandringham this year are understood to be Prince Harry and his bride-to-be Meghan Markle.
That is being seen as a break with tradition, as Catherine Middleton was not invited to join Prince William for Christmas in 2010 despite the couple announcing their engagement a month before.
Also expected to be there are Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, Princess Anne and Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence and Prince Edward with his wife, Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, and their children, Lady Louise and James, Viscount Severn.
Christmas at Sandringham is a traditional affair, with daily visits to church and several changes of dress a day. Insiders say everything from guests’ arrival time to when they eat breakfast, walk the dogs, sit down to lunch and retire to bed is strictly timetabled.
Lunch on Christmas Day is pencilled in for just 50 minutes and is followed on Boxing Day by Prince Philip’s traditional Boxing Day pheasant shoot on the 2,000 acre estate.
The celebrations are understood to include the exchange of ‘cheap and cheerful’ gifts given on Christmas Eve and a round of charades.
On Christmas Day Prince Philip leads the family on the 330-yard walk to the 16th Century church of St Mary Magdalene while the Queen follows by car.
For Christmas Eve lunch the men traditionally wear suits, while the women wear smart silk dresses, changing into black tie and gowns for dinner.
On Christmas Day, the guests normally come down for breakfast dressed in their church outfits, usually a day dress or a smart suit with pearls for the women.
Despite having dated Harry for six months by then, Miss Markle was not invited to join the royal family's celebrations last year, as the occasion is reserved for close family.
Sources said “Because of the isolated location of the Sandringham estate and the possibility of bad weather, including snow, over the Christmas period, the van used to make deliveries to the estate needs to have a higher clearance than normal Royal Mail vehicles.”
The Royal Mail said it could not confirm changes to arrangements for the Queen’s Christmas deliveries, saying only: “Royal Mail does not comment on the details of deliveries made to individual customers.”
We've had some of these "High-Level" vans before, and TBH they make very little difference on the Rurals, a Driver with a bit of off road experience is a better bet. 
