In 1981, Princess Diana's first Christmas with the royal family was not the cozy family gathering she had hoped for. The young princess felt more than a little uncomfortable, especially after a surprise gift from her sister-in-law, Princess Anne.

Already suffering from the stifling rituals of royal life, Diana felt lost and alone, thrust into a world of complicated rules. When she spoke to royal biographer Andrew Morton, author of Diana: Her True Story-In Her Own Words, about the royal Christmas celebrations, she said she was “quite frazzled.”

“It's awful, isn't it?” she continued. 'I don't even remember what they bought me. I did all the presents, and Prince Charles would sign the cards.” The late princess told Morton that Christmas with the royal family would be “horrible and very disappointing.”

“No boisterous behavior, lots of tension, silly behavior, silly jokes that outsiders would find strange but insiders would understand. I certainly was [an outsider],” Diana added.

According to Vanity Fair magazine, Princess Diana arrived for her first royal Christmas with “thoughtful and expensive gifts from the catalog, including Floris soap, cashmere sweaters, and luxurious children's clothing. In return, she received... . was a toilet paper holder.

The late princess was “horrified to learn on Christmas Eve that the royal family gave each other nothing but silly gag gifts,” Vanity Fair reported, adding that she gave her sister-in-law, the princess, a cashmere sweater, while Anne gave Diana a toilet accessories to Diana, she added.

Fortunately, in 1982, Princess Diana became aware of this tradition. The following year, she presented Fergie with a leopard-print bath mat.

Somehow, bathroom-themed gifts seem to be particularly popular with the royal family, especially Princess Anne. According to the Mirror, Princess Anne once gave her brother, the king, a “white leather toilet seat seat. Prince Harry also enjoyed the toilet one year, giving his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, a shower cap that read “Ain't life a bitch.”

Princess Diana, it seems, eventually began giving gag gifts to her own children as well. A former royal butler recently told Marie Claire magazine that her late boss once hid a racy “naked women” calendar in Prince William's stockings “to make him blush.”