Tom Daley's family show their support with rainbow themed Christmas gifts

The Olympic diver poses with just a 'gay icon' apron on in one picture

Tom Daley's friends and family showed their support by giving him rainbow flag-themed gifts for Christmas (Instagram )

The family and friends of Tom Daley have used Christmas Day as the perfect opportunity to show their support for the Olympic diver, after he recently revealed he was in a relationship with a man.

Daley posted pictures of the rainbow themed gifts and wrapping he had received on Instagram, and even posed in nothing but a 'gay icon' apron with a friend in one image.

The rainbow flag is a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) pride. The colours reflect the diversity of the LGBT community, and the flag is often used as a symbol of gay pride in LGBT rights marches.

Underneath one picture of a present wrapped with a rainbow ribbon, he wrote: "Running theme for today haha...thanks aunty Marie :P".

The 19-year-old announced he was dating a man during a video posted on YouTube earlier this month, where he said "he couldn't be happier" since beginning his new relationship.

Speaking for five minutes in the video, which Daley Tweeted to his 2.4 million followers, the athlete admitted that the relationship had taken him "by surprise a little bit… My whole world just changed, right there and then."

During an interview on The Jonathan Ross Show, he described being struck by “love at first sight” when he first met his new boyfriend, but admitted that making the decision to finally come out was “terrifying”.

The diver captioned this image with: "Running theme for today haha...thanks aunty Marie :P" (Instagram)

He said: “I’d never felt like anything like it before. We were at a party and I hadn’t even spoken to him all night. I didn’t know what to do or if he was gay at first."

After announcing his new relationship, he said he was "overwhelmed" by the support he had received from the public. "Means the world! Thanks so much guys," he wrote on Twitter.