With the King’s Coronation just around the corner, we’re hoping you’re all getting excited for the big day (6th May!). With the extra bank holiday, it’ll be a great time to spend some extra time with family. We’ve therefore come up with 6 fun activities for the family to do during the festivities!
1. Make the Coronation Quiche
Did you know that just like the Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953, which was marked with Coronation Chicken, King Charles III’s coronation is also being marked with a special dish. They have chosen The Coronation Quiche which is a super easy dish that all the family can help with. You can either make your own shortcrust pastry or buy shop bought if tight on time and then create the filling from the following ingredients:
125ml milk
175ml double cream
2 medium eggs
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon,
Salt and pepper
100g grated cheddar cheese,
180g cooked spinach, lightly chopped
60g cooked broad beans or soya beans
Follow these steps to complete your Coronation Quiche.
- Line the tin with the pastry, taking care not to have any holes or the mixture could leak. Cover and rest for a further 30 minutes in the fridge.
- Preheat the oven to 190°C.
- Line the pastry case with greaseproof paper, add baking beans and bake blind for 15 minutes, before removing the greaseproof paper and baking beans.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C.
- Beat together the milk, cream, eggs, herbs and seasoning.
- Scatter 1/2 of the grated cheese in the blind-baked base, top with the chopped spinach and beans and herbs, then pour over the liquid mixture.
- If required gently give the mixture a delicate stir to ensure the filling is evenly dispersed but be careful not to damage the pastry case.
- Sprinkle over the remaining cheese. Place into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until set and lightly golden.
It’ll be a perfect accompaniment to any family meal or street party you might be attending as part of the festivities.
2. Create Coronation themed arts and crafts
If you have young children it’s likely they’ll be hearing all about the coronation and its history at school. It might therefore be a perfect time to complete some Coronation themed arts and crafts with them.
We recently created some crowns for the children to all wear so they could pretend to be Kings and Queens for the day. A nice simple video to follow is from Arts for Kids Hub on YouTube. We would really recommend their channel if your child is interested in drawing (they have great simple videos to practice with). However, they also have a great video on creating your own Crown perfect for the coronation. This design allows your child to decide on all the decoration – perfect if they want to express their own individual style! Take a look at the video below and get your kids involved. Please note that this video requires the use of scissors (and glue!) so you may need to supervise/assist younger children.
3. Colour in our own Coronation window stickers
Did you know we’ve created our own collection of Coronation window stickers so you can theme your home ready for the big day? In particular however, we’ve created a pack of colour in window stickers for the coronation – making it a perfect little activity for children to get involved in.
Our colour-in window stickers are super simple to use. They are just like our normal window stickers, being repositionable and cleanly removable, and can be applied by simply peel and sticking. However, they can be coloured in using Sharpie markers in whatever colour you wish. Take a look at the entire Coronation window stickers collection and if your children love stickers then the colour-in pack could keep them busy for an hour or so!
4. Write a letter to the new King
A really sweet idea is also for your little ones to write a letter to send to Buckingham Palace to congratulate him on the coronation and wish him every success in his new role.
Per the Royal Family’s website, you can write to His Majesty at the following address:
His Majesty The King
Buckingham Palace
London SW1A 1AA
If you wish to write a formal letter, you can open with ‘Sir’ and close the letter with the form ‘I have the honour to be, Sir, Your Majesty’s humble and obedient servant’.
This traditional approach is by no means obligatory. You should feel free to write in whatever style you feel comfortable. This is also great practice if your children are learning to write or a good excuse to practice their handwriting!
5. Watch the TV coverage as a family
No matter your view on the Monachy, there is no disputing that 6 May will mark a significant historic occasion. When chatting to older generations, Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation was a real landmark event, particularly given television technology at that time was in it’s infancy. Things have certainly moved on regarding technology, however the historical significance of such an event is probably as big as ever.
If you have young children it’s also likely they’ll have lots of questions about the event. So why not spend time as a family sitting down to watch the TV coverage all together. The pageantry and ceremony is certainly one thing the British do extremely well and it is sure to be a great visual spectacle for everyone to enjoy.
6. Celebrate with a street party or garden picnic
With such a rare occasion, we know many of you will be hosting or attending a local street party. If there is nothing planned however where you live then why not simply enjoy a local picnic or even host one in the garden?
Hopefully, the weather will hold out and allow you to relax outdoors with the family. You can even get fully in the spirit of things by creating some classic cocktails. Pimm’s and lemonade is a classic for Royal events, however, the King has also released his own Gin to mark the occasion. You could therefore opt for Gin and Tonics. You can also create alcohol-free alternatives. Alcohol-free gins tend to be quite expensive however you can follow this recipe on BBC Goodfood which is a much cheaper alternative!
That’s it – our 6 family activities for the coronation weekend. Whatever you and your family get up to during the coronation weekend we hope you have a lovely time and get a chance to celebrate what will be a historic occasion.
