Here's How Queen Elizabeth Will Reportedly Spend Her 96th Birthday

While the royal family is pulling out all the stops for Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee in June 2022, she is reportedly choosing to celebrate her 96th birthday quietly in one of her late husband's favorite places, Sandringham.

Sandringham has always held a special place in Elizabeth's heart. She has been going to the estate, located in Norfolk, since she was a child. The estate is also the place where her beloved father, King George VI, was born in 1865 and passed away in 1936. The estate was also where the queen gave her first televised Christmas message (via Town & Country) and the royal family spends the holidays there each year, participating in some weird traditions that include exchanging gag gifts and decorating multiple Christmas trees.

And Elizabeth wasn't the only one who loved the location. After ending his career as a working royal in 2017, Prince Philip spent a great deal of time there carriage driving and painting, staying at Wood Farm, a modest house on the estate, per People. So it's not surprising that Elizabeth decided to honor her late husband on her birthday by reportedly staying there as well. 

Wood Farm has proven to be an idyllic retreat for the monarch, and one that she turns to frequently. "It is certainly true that Wood Farm is the one royal home where the Queen feels she can escape from the pressures of monarchy and being under the spotlight," Richard Kay wrote in the Daily Mail last year. 

To commemorate her birthday, Buckingham Palace released a new photo of Queen Elizabeth with two of her fell ponies, Bybeck Katie and Bybeck Nightingale, per People. And members of the royal family took to social media to wish her well.

"Wishing Her Majesty The Queen a very happy 96th birthday today! An inspiration to so many across the UK, the Commonwealth and the world, it's particularly special to be celebrating in this #PlatinumJubilee year," Prince William and Kate Middleton posted on their Instagram account. 

The queen's official Twitter page also posted an adorable photo of Elizabeth at two years old. "Then, in 1928, it was never expected she would be Queen, and this year Her Majesty is celebrating her #PlatinumJubilee – a first in British history," the caption read.