King Charles is pushing the boat out for Christmas this year, inviting a whopping forty five family members to join him and Queen Camilla at Sandringham in one of the biggest regal festive jamborees of recent years. Who can blame our staunch monarch for wanting to draw his loved ones close at his Norfolk residence to raise a glass after his medical annus horribilis? He has spent the last gruelling year battling an undisclosed form of cancer, along with his daughter-in-law, the Princess of Wales, who is also recovering from chemotherapy treatment.
It will cheer the country’s flagging spirit to see Charles and Kate join their wider family on the royal walkabout as they file to St Mary Magdalene Church at Sandringham on Christmas Day. It is likely that part of the intention behind Charles’s lavish shindig is that he wishes to thank and honour his relatives who have stepped in and up during the last year of straightened circumstances, propping up such a slimmed-down monarchy. The peerless Princess Anne, her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, along with Anne’s children and grandchildren will be present, along with the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and their children. Nothing new here because they are royal regulars on the Sandringham Christmas circuit.
