Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone! No matter how you celebrate, I’m thinking about you this time of year and hoping that you have a brilliant and wonderful holiday season. As we all celebrate with family and friends in our own homes, here’s a look at some of the festive celebrations that the royals have been taking part in this December.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla of the United Kingdom released their annual Christmas card earlier this month. It features a portrait of the two of them, taken by Hugo Bernand, on their coronation day back in May.
The King and the Queen have both been celebrating with the British public this month as well. Here’s King Charles joshing with Father Christmas during a visit to Ealing Broadway Christmas Market.
Queen Camilla held one of the most joyful annual royal events again this December: a special reception at Clarence House for children from Helen & Douglas House and Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity, during which they all pitch in to help decorate a Christmas tree.
Queen Camilla also helped to decorate another Christmas tree at Childrens Hospice South West’s Charlton Farm site this month.
And she attended a special carol concert at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, benefitting Maggie’s Centres.
The Prince and Princess of Wales also released their annual Christmas card portrait, a traditional black-and-white image that also features Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis.
The five Waleses were in attendance earlier this month at the Together at Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey, along with numerous members of the extended royal family.
The Duchess of Edinburgh was in Woking this month for a special Christmas party at The Lighthouse, where she was joined by refugees from Ukraine.
Across the sea in Denmark, the entire royal family has been getting into the holiday spirit. The royal court is sharing little moments of Christmas joy this month in a digital Advent calendar. One of the first installments showed Queen Margrethe II setting up her Advent wreath at Fredensborg Palace.
Each Sunday since, the lighting of the Advent candles has been featured. In a little nod to the line of succession, Crown Prince Frederik lit the candles on the second Sunday of Advent…
…and Prince Christian was pictured lighting the candles on the third Sunday of Advent.
We’ve also gotten a few more glimpses of Christmas preparations inside the Danish palaces. Queen Margrethe II was shown decorating gifts in a special present-wrapping station that she installed in a palace guest room.
Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary were shown decorating their family Christmas tree with their four children at Frederik VIII’s Palace.
We also saw their younger son, Prince Vincent, pitching in to help the family chef make desserts for a Mary Foundation holiday reception.
Prince Joachim and Princess Marie of Denmark are heading to Denmark with their children to celebration Christmas, but first they showed us a photograph of a Christmas dinner celebration in their home in Washington, D.C.
And inside Christian VIII’s Palace, Princess Benedikte was pictured hanging ornaments from her personal collection on a Christmas tree.
In Stockholm, Queen Silvia was surrounded by family as her 80th birthday celebrations approached. On December 18, she was joined by all eight of her grandchildren—Princess Estelle and Prince Oscar, Prince Alexander, Prince Gabriel, and Prince Julian, and Princess Leonore, Prince Nicolas, and Princess Adrienne—to receive the traditional Christmas tree delivery at the Royal Palace.
Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel also released this new holiday portrait of their family.
In Oslo, the Norwegian royal family posed during their traditional Christmas portrait session. King Harald V and Queen Sonja were joined by Crown Prince Haakon, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, and Prince Sverre Magnus for the pictures. (Crown Princess Mette-Marit has COVID and had to stay back this year.)
The Belgian royal family also released their family Christmas card portrait, taken earlier this year.
There were festive visits on the December calendar, too, including a stop at the Françoise Schervier House for King Philippe and Queen Mathilde.
The King and Queen were joined by three of their children—the Duchess of Brabant, Prince Emmanuel, and Princess Eleonore—for the annual royal Christmas concert and reception.
The Spanish royal family released their Christmas card portrait, which features an image taken in October during the Princess of Asturias’s birthday celebrations.
In Luxembourg, the holiday celebrations included a special appearance by Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie on St. Nicholas Day. They made a holiday visit to Kannerland, a center for disadvantaged children and young people, in Limpertsberg.
At Huis ten Bosch in The Hague, the Dutch royals posed for their annual holiday photos. King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima were joined by all three of their daughters, plus the family pup, for the pictures.
And finally, here’s a look at some of the Christmas cheer out of the principality of Monaco. This year Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene released a particularly glamorous Christmas card, featuring their two children and some major diamonds.
Prince Albert and Princess Charlene also took part in the traditional Red Cross gift distribution in Monaco this month.
And last week, they were joined by their nephew and niece, Louis Ducruet and Camille Gottlieb, for a festive celebration and gift presentation in the courtyard at the Palais Princier.
Happy Holidays from me to all of you, magpies! I hope your December celebrations have been and will be magical this year. I’ll be back here at some point on Tuesday, December 26th with a look at the jewelry worn by the British royals on Christmas Day. See you then!
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