How Meghan and Harry are spending their Christmas this 12 months – away from Sandringham | EUROtoday

As the royal household prepares to assemble on the Sandringham property for his or her annual Christmas festivities, it appears unlikely that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will likely be becoming a member of them.

The final time Harry and Meghan spent Christmas with the royal household was in 2018, making this the sixth consecutive 12 months they’ve been absent from the Norfolk celebrations.

Instead, the couple is anticipated to mark the vacation at their Montecito house in California, joined by Meghan’s mom, Doria Ragland, and their kids, Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3.

Reports recommend no invitation was prolonged to the Sussexes for the Sandringham festivities, the place the King, Queen, and the Prince and Princess of Wales, together with their household, will reunite.

However, Harry has beforehand shared that some royal Christmas traditions stay on in his circle of relatives. Among them is the customized of opening presents on Christmas Eve, a nod to the cherished ritual in Sandringham’s White Room.

In his memoir SpareHarry mirrored on his household’s first Christmas Eve within the United States in 2020.

He wrote: “We took Archie to find a Christmas tree. A pop-up lot in Santa Barbara. We bought one of the biggest spruces they had. We brought it home, set it up in the living room. Magnificent. We stood back, admiring, counting our blessings. New home. Healthy boy.

“It was Christmas Eve. We FaceTimed with several friends, including a few in Britain. We watched Archie running around the tree. And we opened presents. Keeping to the Windsor family tradition.”

In a current interview with Marie ClaireMeghan spoke of the enjoyment they discover in constructing new traditions as a household.

“I love the holidays,” she shared. “Archie and Lilibet are now three and five, so every year it gets better.” She added: “At first, I think as a mom with children, you’re just enjoying having them there, but they’re not understanding everything that’s happening yet. But now we’re at the age where I just can’t wait to see it through their lens every year.”

Meghan described their festivities as together with “a great meal” adopted by video games and enjoyable, “like any other family.”

Meanwhile, King Charles continues the custom of internet hosting Christmas at Sandringham, following within the footsteps of his late mom, Queen Elizabeth II, who presided over the property’s festive gatherings since 1998.

Harry and Meghan’s final royal Christmas look in 2018 included the memorable walkabout the place they had been photographed alongside the Prince and Princess of Wales—a scene emblematic of a really completely different time.

Over the years, Harry and Meghan’s relationship with the royal household has grown more and more strained. Since stepping again as senior royals in 2020, they’ve publicly detailed their unfavourable experiences throughout the establishment by means of interviews, a Netflix sequence, and Harry’s memoir, Spare.

Signs of reconciliation appeared earlier this 12 months when Harry flew to London to satisfy his father after King Charles’s most cancers analysis. However, Meghan has not returned to the UK since Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral in 2022, additional underscoring the continued distance.