Playing it safe

This is the picture on the front of the official Christmas card sent out by the  King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia this year  - a very tasteful shot of the Zarzuela Palace lit up at night.

Previous Christmas cards have shown the King and Queen surrounded by their grandchildren but for this year it has proved too difficult to get them all together for a photo-shoot.

This is not a new problem for the Royals. Five years ago they overcame this by using Photoshop. The picture for 2005 showed the King and Queen sat on a sofa surrounded by the seven grandchildren they had at that time. Unfortunately, whoever was responsible for the composite managed to amputate the King’s right leg – an easy mistake to make in Photoshop but one which you would expect someone would spot before the card was sent out.

Earlier this year the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Felipe, had photographs taken to mark his rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the army and air force and frigate captain in the navy  which appeared to use the same shot of his face juxtaposed above three different military uniforms. The Palace deny this and said that the pictures were authentic. Obviously the Prince was able to exactly reproduce the same expression three times.

Apart from the King and Queen, the rest of the members of the Spanish Royal Family are also playing it safe this year with not a hint of even airbrushing in sight.

Prince Felipe and his wife, Princess Letizia are absent from their greeting card instead choosing a portrait of their two daughters, the infantas Leonor, 5, and three-year-old Sofia.

The infanta Elena, the King and Queen's eldest daughter chose a snap of herself with her two children outside the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela after a pilgrimage at Easter.

The youngest daughter, the infanta Cristina is sending out a photograph of her four children taken while during their summer holiday on the island of Majorca.

Since it is highly unlikely that I will receive any of these cards, I won’t be able to comment on the authenticity of the photographs!