After a hefty year, many Royal fans are wondering: What are Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Christmas plans for 2022?
In a brief statement, Buckingham Palace announced that the Royal Family will be celebrating their Christmas at Sandringham Castle for the first time in three years. “Their Majesties The King and The Queen Consort accompanied by Members of the Royal Family will attend the Morning Service on Christmas Day at Sandringham Church, on Sunday 25th December 2022.” It’ll be the first time that the Royal family will be celebrating after Queen Elizabeth’s death. The Queen died on September 8, 2022, at Balmoral Castle, and the Royal family had quite the transition of power when Charles was proclaimed sovereign and William and Kate inherited his title of Prince and Princess of Wales.
But the real question is: Will William and Kate stray away from tradition? Read below to see Prince William and Kate Middleton’s plans for Christmas 2022.
What are Prince William and Kate Middleton’s plans for Christmas 2022?
What are Prince William and Kate Middleton’s plans for 2022? William and Kate already kicked off their Christmas plans with their activities at Westminster Abbey.
Kate hosted her second caroling event at the historic church called “Together at Christmas.” The caroling event featured the Westminster Abbey Choir performing world-famous Christmas carols, including “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” which was selected through a public poll. Musical guests also on the special broadcast, including Craig David, Alexis French, Samantha Barks and a duet by Alfie Boe and Melanie C. It also featured readings by Prince William, Dame Kristin Scott Thomas and Hugh Bonneville. The special began with a video tribute that looked back at Queen Elizabeth’s meaningful Christmas Day messages over the years. Prince William read her 2012 Christmas broadcast speech during the event, and Kate honored Her Majesty with Paddington Bear tributes at the ceremony.
As well as the one that takes place at Westminster Abbey, community carol services will take place around the U.K. to celebrate local heroes. The events will be hosted by Lord Lieutenants and supported by The Royal Foundation. These events will include elements of the Westminster Abbey service, and guests will receive a special foreword written by the Princess of Wales.
Image: Getty Images
Kate also planted a tree in honor of Queen Elizabeth at the iconic abbey on December 14, 2022. “The Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales dedicated a tree in Dean’s Yard at Westminster Abbey to mark the memory of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” Westminster Abbey’s Instagram wrote. “The tree is a wild cherry tree (Prunus avium Plena) from the estate of the Duchy of Cornwall. It replaces a horse chestnut tree that was rotten and suffered from summer sudden limb drop earlier this year. The Princess shoveled the last spadefuls of earth onto the tree and unveiled a plaque that reads: This wild cherry tree, a gift from the Duchy of Cornwall, was dedicated in memory of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales on 14th December 2022.”
As for family matters, the Prince and Princess of Wales, as well as Prince George, 9, Princess Charlotte, 7, and Prince Louis, 4, are also on board with the plans “are extremely key to” King Charles’ tradition-breaking Christmas plans. According to a source in Us Weekly, the king wants to honor the queen—his mother—and her legacy during their holiday celebrations. “It will be extremely sad not to have the queen there,” the source said, adding that it will be “bittersweet.” However, the royal family is aware that the late queen, “would not want them to mope or let that detract everyone from coming together and enjoying the occasion.” He is “equally determined to bring in some new more modern traditions and implementations of his own as the family moves forward into a new era.”
Mike Tindall chatted about his experiences of Christmas at Sandringham during his The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast, and where the children are seated.”This is the family lunch, there were seven tables so there must have been about 70 of us there,” he said. “The kiddies have their own little one in a different room.” Nodding that William and Kate’s kids will probably sit there for the celebrations this year.
Royal commentator Jennie Bond told Ok! Magazine that the newly titled Prince and Princess might stray away to spend time on their own. “The younger royals will probably want to spend time with their own families, so I think the two or three-day celebrations of the past may, indeed, be a thing of the past. While I imagine there will be a gathering at Sandringham, whether it will be quite as extended as it used to be with the Queen, and with quite as many people, I’m not sure.” She continued, “Without the linchpin of the Queen holding together an often fractured family, they may suddenly decide to do their own thing. It’ll be the first time since all the turmoil following her death that the royals will stop for a moment and, as a family, reflect and raise a glass to her.
With the release of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s bombshell documentary, it seems like the two couples won’t be celebrating the holiday together. “It was always assumed Meghan and Harry would want to be in America for the holidays,” the insider explains to Us Weekly. adding that the recent “tension would have made it virtually impossible.” After Volume II of the Netflix documentary series was released, a source told Page Six that William is “done” with his brother. “I think that’s it,” the source said. In the doc, Harry disclosed what happened when he went up to his family to reveal that he and Meghan were leaving their Royal duties. “It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me, and my father [King Charles III] say things that just simply weren’t true, and my grandmother [Queen Elizabeth II] quietly sit there and just take it all in,” he recalled. The Duke of Sussex also revealed that the decision left a “wedge” in their relationship. The source claimed that the Prince and Princess of Wales were happy with their children for their holiday celebrations “while Harry and Meghan were distanced, sad and bitter back in Montecito.”
Courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers.
For more about Prince Harry and Prince William’s feud, check out historian Robert Lacey’s 2020 book, Battle of Brothers. In this New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, Lacey takes a close look at Harry and William’s relationship throughout the years and considers each moment that led to their eventual estrangement. From the impact of their mother Princess Diana’s tragic death and the pressures of their roles in the royal family (William, the future king vs. Harry, the spare), to the influence their wives Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle have had on their differing paths, Battle of Brothers reveals all the “highs, lows, and discretions” of these brothers’ lives in a way “never offered before.”
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