Southerners Approve of the Homemade Gift Kate Middleton Once Gave the Queen for Christmas

While we feel like finding a great Christmas gift for our grandmother is about as hard as it gets, it's safe to say that it's not quite the same as finding a Christmas gift for your grandmother(-in-law) who also happens to be Queen Elizabeth II of England. Just as we often find ourselves lamenting "What do you get someone who has everything?!," we cannot imagine purchasing something the longest ruling monarch of all time doesn't already have.

Luckily, the Duchess of Cambridge seems to have a knack for it and blazed a trail during her first Christmas with the royal family by giving the Queen of England—gasp!—a homemade gift. In an past interview for the ITV documentary, Our Queen at Ninety, the Duchess said, "I was worried what to give the Queen as her Christmas present. I was thinking, 'Gosh, what should I give her?' And I thought back to what would I give my own grandparents. And I thought, 'I'll make her something.' Which could have gone horribly wrong."

Before you imagine the 95-year-old queen wrapping a hand-knitted scarf around her jeweled-and-pearled neck, get ready to give an approving nod to the homemade gift of choice. Kate Middleton whipped up a batch of marrow chutney straight from her family recipe box. (Rest assured: In this case, marrow is not of the bone variety. It's zucchini.) Southerners know the power of a family recipe during the holiday season, whether for a big feast or to give as homemade food gifts, and so the Duchess scored major points in our book.

Giving a home-cooked gift is like giving a small piece of love and comfort. You're deeming the receiver worthy of your time and effort—not to mention, your very best dish. The chutney in question is a traditional English-style recipe with marrows, apples, brown sugar, vinegar, and raisins; and the spread works extremely well with a cheese board or, perhaps, at tea time. Of course, it went over just swimmingly with the Queen.

"I was slightly worried about it, but I noticed the next day that it was on the table. I've noticed since she's done that on lots of occasions and I think it just shows her thoughtfulness, really, and her care in looking after everybody," said Middleton.

The whole exchange oozes Southern holiday grace and hospitality, from the passed-down family recipe (known to the Middleton family as Granny's Marrow Chutney) to the polite gesture of serving it to guests the following day. At the Royal Christmas at Sandringham, the homemade chutney is always going to be a hard one to top, but we're sure the Duchess will rise to the occasion.