While the run-up to Christmas usually comes with its fair share of stresses, no one is feeling the heat more this festive season than the royal family. The King, the Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales have been dodging missiles related to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex yet again, as the recent release of Omid Scobie’s critically panned book Endgame named Charles and Kate as the so-called ‘royal racists’. But the new “Fab Four” – as they were dubbed after Kate’s Together at Christmas carol concert last year – have been putting on a steadfastly united front, after they were all photographed together at the annual Diplomatic Reception at Buckingham Palace last week.
That photograph marked an important moment – the last time the royals posed for a formal picture at a diplomatic reception at the Palace, it was 2016 and Elizabeth II was at its heart – and sets the tone for what we can expect from the royal family this Christmas, in the wake of yet another turbulent year with the divisive Sussexes at its centre. Rumours have been circulating for weeks that Harry and Meghan were hoping for an invitation to Sandringham for the holidays this year, after there were signs of a thaw in relations when Harry phoned Charles on his 75th birthday last month, with one friend quoted as saying, “I can’t imagine the Sussexes would decline an invitation to spend time with His Majesty.” But any thoughts of the drama-loving couple spending Christmas with the royals have been firmly quashed, following the fallout from Endgame.
“It's hard to imagine the Sussexes being invited to spend Christmas at Sandringham now,” says Christopher Andersen, author of The King: The Life of Charles III. “Meghan and Harry haven’t spent Christmas with the royal family since 2018, and with every year it just gets less and less likely that they will ever return.” During those five long years, the Sussexes have become increasingly estranged, with Harry and William said to no longer be on speaking terms. Meanwhile, Charles has never spent a Christmas with his grandchildren Archie or Lilibet.
“If the king were to invite Harry and Meghan to Christmas, you would see William and the Princess of Wales choose to spend the holiday elsewhere and right now, Charles and William must look unified,” says LA-based royal expert Kinsey Schofield, host of the To Di For Daily podcast. “It is crucial that senior members of the royal family show unity at this time. They are setting the tone for the upcoming year and that tone needs to be faith, strength, and harmony. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are like a tornado. They are the opposite of peace.”
As for where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be spending Christmas, it’s most likely they’ll either head abroad or be holed up in their Montecito mansion with Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland – the only member of either family who has spent any significant amount of time with Harry and Meghan’s children since they were born. With rumours swirling that the Sussexes are keen to up sticks and move to Hollywood, this could well be their last Christmas in their current home. “I could see them taking off to Canada for the holidays like they did during their first Christmas with Archie,” says Schofield. “They seem more comfortable travelling, but perhaps they would like one last Christmas in their Montecito mansion before Harry officially becomes The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”
Whatever they end up doing, it will likely be a wholesome affair, with all the activities on the day centred around the kids. “We know that Meghan loves to cook and spend time in the kitchen – perhaps they will decorate Christmas cookies for Santa,” says Schofield. And while it’s unlikely the Sussexes and the Waleses will be swapping Christmas wishes on the day itself, they’ll still have made sure to exchange Christmas presents for the kids in advance, just like they did last year.
Meanwhile, Charles and the other senior members of the royal family will be decamping en masse to Sandringham, where the Windsors have celebrated the festive season since 1988 (bar a brief hiatus during Covid). After a black-tie dinner for the adult members of the family on Christmas Eve and the exchanging of presents in the White Drawing Room (they follow the German tradition of opening gifts on Christmas Eve), there’ll be the traditionalâ¯Christmas morning walk to St Mary Magdalene Church first thing. There, members of the public can catch of glimpse of the royals in their festive finery before they all head back for a traditional Christmas dinner.
The biggest shake-up this year comes in the form of an extended guest list, with many members of Queen Camilla’s family invited for the first time. A royal source was quoted as saying, "The Queen has invited her children and grandchildren this year which is different from previous years.” The Queen has two children – Laura Lopes and Tom Parker-Bowles – and five grandchildren: Lola, Eliza, Louis, Gus and Freddy. The extra numbers mean Christmas lunch will now be served in the larger ballroom of Sandringham House rather than the dining room, as has been the tradition, to accommodate a bigger table.
The move marks the first significant change of arrangements since the death of Queen Elizabeth. “The fact that Queen Camilla's wider family is now invited to Christmas celebrations at Sandringham can't sit well with either William or Harry, both of whom begged their father not to marry in the first place,” says Andersen. “Christmas was such a special time for the late Queen, and she and Prince Phillip were adamant that only a tight-knit group of senior royals attend. [But] Camilla is by all accounts a gracious and down-to-earth hostess. She will bring an added warmth to the royals' Christmas celebration.”
The Prince and Princess of Wales will be there with George, Charlotte and Louis, with the entire brood staying down the road at their country retreat, Anmer Hall. The Waleses have been stepping up into their new roles with aplomb this year, with Kate hosting her successful Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey last week. If she was worried about the royal racism row raging in the background, she showed no sign of it.
The Waleses’ newly released pared-back Christmas card – which was shot in black and white by fashion and celebrity portrait photographer Josh Shinner and shows William, Kate and their children wearing casual jeans and open-necked shirts – offers an indication of the more modern style of monarchy we can expect from them in the future. In contrast, the King and Queen’s card depicts them in their ornate Coronation finery. Once Christmas day itself is over, the Waleses’ will head over to see Kate’s family in Bucklebury. “William, Kate and their tribe will definitely divide the Christmas holiday between the Middletons and the royal family at Sandringham, something they've done for years,” says Andersen.
By all accounts, Christmas at the Middletons’ is a thoroughly jolly affair. After years of running a successful party supplies firm, Party Pieces, Carole Middleton is known for her first-rate hosting skills and goes all out for the festive season, with not one but three Christmas trees at home. In an interview in 2018, Carole revealed that one is themed and meticulously decorated, another is a “memory tree” covered in special baubles, and the third is for the grandchildren, who are able to decorate it however they like. The family visits church in the morning, and then goes for a walk before heading home to open some presents. A second round of present opening takes place in the evening.
We’d expect Pippa and her husband James Matthews to be there, along with their three children, Arthur, Grace and Rose, while James and his wife Alizée Thevenet are also likely to be in attendance, along with their baby son Inigo, who’ll be celebrating his first Christmas. They’ll all sit down to a traditional Christmas lunch together – where the children eat with the adults “as soon as they can sit up properly” – and, according to Carole, the day’s essentials include “mince pies, mulled wine and mistletoe”. There’s also plenty of game playing, with family favourites being musical statues and sardines, and even the odd bit of fancy dress. “My father has developed this funny tradition of surprising us at some point by appearing in fancy dress,” Pippa revealed in 2015. “He buys a new costume each year and typically gets a bit carried away – a couple of Christmases ago, he appeared in an inflatable sumo outfit.”
All the usual suspects will be at Sandringham, including the Princess Royal (who had to miss out on last year’s festivities due to a nasty cold), Zara and Mike Tindall and their kids, Mia, Lena and Lucas, the Earl and Countess of Wessex and their children, Louise and James, and Peter Phillips and his daughters, Savannah and Isla. Prince Andrew, Sarah Ferguson and their daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, as well as their husbands and children, will also be joining for the festivities, and are reported to be staying at Wood Farm, which is a short drive from Sandringham House. The exiled Prince made a surprise appearance at the Christmas morning walkabout last year, so it’s thought he’ll be there again this year with his daughters. While all of his grandchildren are still too young to attend (the minimum age is four), last year Beatrice brought her stepson Wolfie along.
The day itself will be formal, but the royals still know how to have fun and love nothing more than a rollicking game of charades or murder-in-the dark at Christmas. “Their love of Victorian parlour games and slapstick humour is the funny bone that runs through the house of Windsor,” says Tessa Dunlop, author of Elizabeth and Philip: A Story of Young Love, Marriage and Monarchy. They’re partial to the odd joke present, too, with Kate reportedly once buying Harry a ‘Grow your own girlfriend’ kit and Meghan said to have gifted the Queen a singing toy hamster during her first Christmas at Sandringham.
One person who almost certainly won’t be getting an invite this year? Princess Michael of Kent, who made headlines around the world when she wore a “racist” brooch to the Queen's Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace in 2017 – the first attended by Harry’s then-fiancée Meghan. The last thing the royal family needs this Christmas is another reason for them to be branded racist and out of touch.
Instead, the Princess will most likely be spending Christmas at Kensington Palace, with her daughter Lady Gabriella Kingston and her husband Thomas Kingston, and her son Lord Frederick Windsor, his wife Sophie Winkleman (half-sister of Claudia Winkleman) and their two daughters, Maud and Isabella. They’ll go to midnight mass on Christmas Eve before having a traditional Christmas lunch in the dining room at the palace and watching the King’s speech on telly. “[It’s] such a marvellous thing, such a good way of uniting us all,” Princess Michael of Kent once said about the monarch’s annual Christmas message.
This year, the royal Christmas will be all about unity, and projecting a spirit of togetherness in the wake of a decidedly tricky year, which started with the publication of Harry’s tell-all memoir Spare in January and has ended with even more mudslinging courtesy of Omid Scobie. “Charles's focus during the holidays will decidedly not be on trying to mend fences with Harry and Meghan,” says Andersen. “That ship has sailed. The king is intent on holding the rest of the royal family together, and using this festive time to create the illusion that all is well in the House of Windsor.”
