Queen Camilla's Family Will Reportedly Get The Royal Treatment Christmas 2023
Getting an invitation to an event held by the royal family is quite a coveted achievement in many circles. One such invitation has been family-only for years, and that's to the Christmas celebration at Sandringham in Norfolk. The event is only for royal family members, so for most, the only way to get it would be to marry into the royal family.
However, this year is a bit different. For the first time, all of Queen Camilla's children and grandchildren will be joining the royal family at Sandringham House for Christmas lunch.
Camilla has two stepsons with King Charles III — Prince William and Prince Harry — and she has two children from her first marriage to Andrew Parker Bowles: Laura Lopes, mother of Eliza, Louis, and Gus Lopes, and Tom Parker Bowles, father of Lola and Freddy. So technically, in a way, since Camilla is married to King Charles, her children and grandchildren could then be considered a part of the Windsor extended family. And in this case, that family just happens to be royal.
Queen Camilla's kids and grandkids might walk with her to the church at Christmas
The royal family has been celebrating Christmas at Sandringham in Norfolk since 1988. A part of the royal tradition is for the family to walk together to St. Mary Magdalene Church to attend a service on Christmas Day then walk back for lunch. We're not sure yet if Queen Camilla's kids and grandkids will attend the same service before the lunch with the royals, and if so, if they'll walk in with the royal family during that much-photographed occasion.
We are more certain that we won't be seeing Camilla's youngest stepson — Prince Harry — at Sandringham. While there were some reports that Harry and Meghan Markle would attend the event if they were invited, there doesn't seem to be any indication from the king or the palace that a Sandringham invitation has been extended to Harry and Meghan this year.
Harry and Meghan notably skipped the Sandringham Christmas event in 2019 to spend time on their own in Canada, in what we know now was in the lead-up to their stepping back from royal duties in early 2020. We're not sure that Camilla has forgiven Harry and Meghan in light of that stepping down, so even if they were invited and they did show up, it could be quite the awkward lunch.
Camilla's grandsons played a role in the coronation
In 2020 and 2021, the royal Christmas wasn't held at Sandringham, but at Windsor in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first return to the Sandringham tradition, including the Christmas walk, was in 2022. And while King Charles became king immediately upon his mother's death in 2022, this will be the first Christmas since he and Queen Camilla were crowned in May 2023. With invitations extended to Camilla's kids and grandkids for the first time, it could be a sign of a new tradition for the family.
It's hard for us non-royals to know exactly what the newcomers can expect from a Sandringham Christmas event since not too much about the private, family event has been made public. However, we do have some hints. In the Netflix docuseries, "Harry & Mehgan," Meghan Markle talked about what it was like during her first Christmas at Sandringham in 2017. "There was just this constant movement and energy and fun," she said.
It won't be the first major royal event that Camilla's grandkids have taken part in. Her three grandsons were Pages of Honour at the coronation, helping to carry her heavy, ceremonial robes as she moved about Westminster Abbey. If the invitations to Camilla's family to Christmas keep up, it won't be the last time that we see them — or at least hear about them — at a royal event.