The King's Christmas Message 2026: What Time It Airs in the UK, US, Canada and Australia

The King’s Christmas message has aired at 3 p.m. UK time by tradition, which is 10 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) on Friday, Dec. 25, 2026, if it keeps that time. The Royal Family’s website says “the time chosen was 3.00pm” for the Christmas Broadcast. The time, venue and channels for 2026 have not yet been announced. The table below converts 3 p.m. in London for cities in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

What time is the King’s Christmas message in 2026?

Nothing is confirmed for 2026. Last year the details came on Dec. 23: Westminster Abbey said the 2025 message would be broadcast on Thursday 25th December at 3.00 pm GMT by the BBC, Sky News and other UK broadcasters. GMT is Greenwich Mean Time, the time in London in winter.

That is last year’s schedule, not this year’s. Christmas Day 2026 is a Friday, so the date to watch is Fri., Dec. 25. If you want the day itself in the calendar, see When is Christmas Day? and the December 2026 printable calendar.

What time is 3 p.m. in London in the US, Canada and Australia?

The table converts 3:00 p.m. GMT on Fri., Dec. 25, 2026. Offsets are from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which GMT matches in winter. We calculated each row from the offset; none of these times is an announced broadcast time.

City	Offset from UTC in December	Local time
London, UK and Ireland	UTC+0	3:00 p.m. Fri., Dec. 25
St. John’s	UTC-3:30	11:30 a.m. Fri., Dec. 25
Halifax	UTC-4	11:00 a.m. Fri., Dec. 25
New York, Toronto, Ottawa	UTC-5	10:00 a.m. Fri., Dec. 25
Winnipeg	UTC-5 (see note)	10:00 a.m. Fri., Dec. 25
Chicago	UTC-6	9:00 a.m. Fri., Dec. 25
Calgary, Edmonton	UTC-6 (see note)	9:00 a.m. Fri., Dec. 25
Denver, Phoenix	UTC-7	8:00 a.m. Fri., Dec. 25
Vancouver	UTC-7 (see note)	8:00 a.m. Fri., Dec. 25
Los Angeles	UTC-8	7:00 a.m. Fri., Dec. 25
Anchorage	UTC-9	6:00 a.m. Fri., Dec. 25
Honolulu	UTC-10	5:00 a.m. Fri., Dec. 25
Perth	UTC+8	11:00 p.m. Fri., Dec. 25
Brisbane	UTC+10	1:00 a.m. Sat., Dec. 26
Adelaide	UTC+10:30	1:30 a.m. Sat., Dec. 26
Sydney, Melbourne	UTC+11 (daylight time)	2:00 a.m. Sat., Dec. 26
Auckland	UTC+13 (daylight time)	4:00 a.m. Sat., Dec. 26

Chicago is on Central Time and Los Angeles on Pacific Time. For readers in Australia and New Zealand, the message would land after midnight on Dec. 26 in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Auckland, and late on Dec. 25 in Perth. New South Wales and New Zealand both publish daylight saving rules, which is why Sydney and Auckland use the summer offset.

Why are Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver listed with notes?

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) time zone database records Canadian rule changes in its 2026 releases: Manitoba in 2026e, Alberta in 2026c and British Columbia in 2026b. The table uses those rules: Winnipeg on UTC-5, Calgary and Edmonton on UTC-6, and Vancouver on UTC-7, all year. Check your own clock before you set an alarm.

Where could viewers watch the message last year?

Westminster Abbey said the 2025 message was filmed in the Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey by the BBC. It would be broadcast by the BBC, Sky News and other UK broadcasters, and “also available on the Royal Family’s YouTube channel.” We have no confirmed channel lists for viewers in the U.S., Canada or Australia, and no 2026 channels have been announced.

How long has the message been broadcast at 3 p.m.?

King George V spoke on Christmas Day 1932 “on the ‘wireless’ to the Empire from a small office at Sandringham,” the Royal Family’s website says. The first televised message was broadcast live in 1957. The King’s first Christmas Broadcast as monarch was recorded in December 2022.

Printable: King’s Christmas message time by city

The printable lists the 17 conversions above on one page, with weekdays. Print it and check royal.uk in the days before Christmas for the confirmed time. Other UK December dates are in our guide to Christmas bank holidays in the UK, where Boxing Day moves to Monday, Dec. 28 (When is Boxing Day in the UK?), and the Royal Mail last posting dates.