The royal family made their annual pilgrimage to Sandringham for the Christmas holiday, as always. But this year did feel very different. For one thing, Prince William, the Duchess of Cambridge and their two children were not there – they decided to spend the holiday with Kate’s family. The holiday also felt different because the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Christmas plans changed at the last minute because they were both battling really bad colds. If their colds were anything like the cold I had last week (which I’m still feeling), they probably still feel rough, because this is a really lingering illness. While Philip managed to make it to church on Christmas Sunday, the Queen did not. The Queen’s spokesperson said that her doctors recommended that she stay indoors because she was still feeling terrible because of the “heavy cold.”
So these photos are of the royals who did make the trip to church on Christmas Sunday. Those in attendance: Prince Harry, the Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duchess of Cornwall, Princess Eugenie, Princess Beatrice, the Countess of Wessex, Prince Edward, Peter Phillips and his wife Autumn and their daughter Savannah. You can see some better photos of the York princesses here.
What is there to say? Charles and Camilla look nice. I like Camilla’s butterfly pin. I think Autumn Phillips always looks so pulled-together, and she’s reportedly one of the Queen’s favorites. Harry looks hot. He’s probably already off to see Meghan Markle.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Harry’s soon bald lol
I know! He’s really lost a lot of hair this past year. It’s gotta be hard to lose your hair so publicly. Maybe that’s why he’s moving so quickly with Meghan. He wants to have hair in his wedding pictures.
I don’t think he will marry Meghan.
Savannah & Isla are adorable. Everyone looked happy and relaxed, inspite of the Queen’s illness and Zara’s miscarriage.
I love their little capes. Where is James’ coat? He looks like he is freezing.
This site is kind of royal intense, and I thought more attention would go to the Queen missing church/public Christmas festivities since the first time since 1988!
Why won’t the Queen just retire? She’s like 135. I don’t understand why she won’t let Charles be king? What an a$$hole.
I’m getting the feeling that it’s starting. She’s cutting back on royal duties and slowly handing jobs out to family members. I’m also wondering if her health if coming into play now. Not saying it will happen tomorrow, but I’m really wondering if her retirement is approaching. I hope so anyway. Considering how the job of Queen was thrust upon her at such a young age, you’d think she’d like to have just a little time in her life when that duty is not on her shoulders. I would really hate to see her pass away AS the Queen. I would love to see her finish her days as just a wife, mother, and grandmother. I feel like she deserves that.
@ Margot, It doesn’t work like that, when you are crowned it is for life. Nothing to do with a$$hole, in her case.
But her uncle DID abdicate the throne….. just saying.
One example in hundreds of years???? And he was a brat to end all brats.
Margo S. Her uncle did abdicate – but he had been on the throne for less than a year. The Queen will never abdicate.
Her uncle was PUSHED to abdicate. Fired from the job. He was problematic to the establishment for many alarming reasons.
Being thick as a plank and a poor politician, he was led to believe that Wallis was the problem when in reality she was a minor irritation given the other issues with him.
He accepted the abdication because he believed that his status and situation wouldn’t change except for being an ex-King.
It was a rude awakening.
And the establishment went into overdrive to sell the ‘abdicated for love’ story to cover up the true reasons.
Lucky for us, the paperwork has been unsealed and we can read the true reasons he was fired/ pushed to abdicate.
@Margo. From what I’ve read about him, GB dodged a bullet when he abdicated.
If W and K abdicated then GB would dodge a bullet, too. Whishful thinking, I believe.
Btw. what were the true reasons for the abdication of the Queen’s uncle? Respectively: where can you find those “papers”?
She will never retire. She pledged her life to service and she means it.
What service? The woman’s greatest achievement in life is not dying.
What the Queen does, day in, day out, is work. Reading red boxes, going to unglamorous openings of hospital wings in Wigan, attending the world’s most boring board meetings, all of that is work. Most of the boring work that she does as head of state is done by the Vice-President and First Lady in the US, the Governor General in Canada, the president in Germany, etc. And she’s 90 years old, and she’s been doing this since the age of 26.
@ Locke Lamora, well I for one wouldn’t swap places with her.
Even as a republican, I acknowledge that what ER does is work.
Unsure what exactly she has ever achieved. But the job isn’t really about achievement. That’s the job of governments that we elect. It’s about boring continuity and stability. And I don’t think you can argue she hasn’t sustained that. The fools that will come after her? I foresee cock up.
But there we go. That’s the slow evolution of civic society in an old country for you. The diminishing of the monarchy associated with accommodation to keep things like public services and general civics non-party political.
Locke – this is one advantage of constitutional monarchies you should consider. It keeps ideological politics out of certain arenas in a positive way. Civil servants in Britain serve the Crown (not the Queen, but the symbol of it as the nation), and not the government. All our civic institutions are less enslaved to party politics because of it and this is one reason why they are relatively so stable. From this perspective, the cost of the monarchy is very low (even though in terms of individual wealth it is high).
And I say this as a committed republican.
@Locke Lamora
Very true.
We don’t voluntarily abdicate in Britain. It’s a job for life, whether that life is short or long or healthy or not. It’s one of the traditions we’ve held onto since Kingship became a thing in Britain.
We’ve had monarchs who had mental illnesses that required time out, we’ve had a monarch who was mostly in a coma during his reign, absent Monarchs because he was busy crusading and or in jail, and they were still the monarch.
A Regent would still be no 2, not the monarch.
I am sure she plans to when she hits 140 until then Charles will be waiting in the wings.
Seriously? You just called the Queen an a-hole for not retiring?
She still feels she has something to contribute. Sometimes ancient fossils do you know.
Even though her work isn’t as much as most people, she still manages to work a lot harder than her lazy 34 year old grandson.
Now here are some women who can wear clothes & know how to accessorize . Kate please take notice.
I love what Sophie’s wearing. The hat, not so much. Even the York girls are dress more conservatively and look really nice. Even Camilla looks nice. I think Kate is a lost cause. Sure she’s a shopaholic but she has no style or confidence and her shoe and accessorizing games are atrocious IMO.
I hope everything is okay. There are a ton of rumours here (UK) that either the Queen is much more ill than reported, or that it all (Queen missing, Will and kids being absent) is due to some kind of serious security threat. It’s probably nonsense and people getting paranoid about the end of 2016. But all the gossip feels weird.
If it was a security threat why would it be announced beforehand where William and the kids will be.
I believe that the Queen may well be very ill. Phil turned up at church despite their both having “heavy colds.” But I don’t believe it’s security related – if it were, they wouldn’t have let Charles go to church at Sandringham nor that ridiculous Carole pap walk at Bucklebury.
Who is the one member of the family we didn’t see? Maybe that is who was threatened. Wills et al is just a side show.
Ah, the real court marches out! Not even pretending to be normal, which is smart. Everyone is looking good. Nothing strikes the eye as too strange, which is a nice change. Do miss the Queen.
Best dressed: Autumn Phillips and Prince Harry! Frankly everyone looks well put together. Glad to see Harry keeping up with tradition and showing respect for his family and the role he is compensated by the tax payers to do. Honking.
The illnesses are a prime example as to why William and Kate should have bit the bullet and tore themselves away from another Middleton Christmas.
It makes them look really bad. Which, of course, is what they are. So, GOOD.
Does everyone seem happier without the Cambs? It’s lovely to see all the children. Poor George and Char.
Glad to see Harry keeping up with the royal tradition and not being an idiot like his brother.
Yes and I love seeing him all cleaned up too.
I LOVE Eugenie’s red hat.
I’m always here for Harry, and still gleefully supporting Charles and Camilla.
Has the countess of wessex always been stylish and involved, or do you feel she stepped up her game when she noticed Kate sucking so bad?
She has always looked good.
I think she stepped up her style game when Katie became a royal.
She had a few dicey years at the beginning, which I put down to bad 90s fashion. She’s been doing very well since then.
I love her style – I wish the media would cover her fashion more often.
I read an article where she said that when she turned 50 she decided to step it up: she lost weight and started really exercising (esp. Pilates); she also started working with designers and fashion editors to find a style that she wanted to project. She’s done really well with it. Check this out at the end of the article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3285949/The-miraculous-makeovers-turned-dowdy-commoners-Duchess-Cambridge-Sophie-Wessex-Princess-Charlene-dazzling-princesses.html
They look great and happy! Its very nice to see them unified.
I’m glad the the frail DoE made the church walk to help keep a united front. The Cambridges should feel ashamed but probably their entitled asses don’t know the meaning of the word.
I’ll put aside my anti-royal sentiments to say that they all look very nice and happy.
So…without the Queen there, what’s the protocol for who walks in front, Charles or Phillip? Looks from the one photo like Phillip…and from that same photo, he looks very frail. I don’t think I’d like him very much in person, but at least he’s doing the “work” the taxpayers are paying for, unlike Willie the Worthless.
You know as much as I don’t care for the idea of the monarchy, I love the way the all come together at Christmas like this. As my own family has dwindled throughout the years, I am envious of a large gathering at the holidays. William is an ass. He is not just sticking it to his father and grandmother he is alienating his kids from an extended family that is probably very loving. He doesn’t want to spend time with his brother and cousins?? Oy, what an idiot. He is going totally regret being a petulant baby one day.
The other thing that struck me as I looked through these pictures and thought about the “oh poor G & C stuck with boring royal protocol, and they must share the holidays with the Middletons”–what about everybody else that has married in to the RF??! Wouldn’t Camilla want to spend the day with her children and grandchildren?? And what about Autumn Philips-perhaps she wishes she could occasionally spend the holidays in Canada with her family? But-they understand as part of the deal of marrying in, this is one of the sacrifices that you make.
I thought they all looked great. Phillip looked a bit rough but he has been sick too. He is doing unbelievably well for 95.
Philip also looked very stylish. I think this gray is a new coat for him. Maybe he’s finally retired his old camel one (much like the one Charles is wearing at this event). Camilla’s coat is lovely on her too.
I really do think Philip and the Queen are an example of the need to keep busy as one ages. I honestly wonder sometimes if it is the fact they’re still active and involved that has kept them both alive – either way, I do think they are a great example, and I wish society as a whole would find better ways for all senior citizens to stay involved.
All the royals look very happy and seem to be putting on a united front. Hopefully Whiny and Waity will realise that they were not missed at all. The other young children all seem able to cope with Christmas at Sandringham but they don’t carry any snowflake genes like G&C.
I am ready for Harry to shave the beard and fix his hair situation. He looks unkept.
Yeah he does
Captain Haddock: ginger version.
I don’t know why it is such a thing in England for the queen not to abdicate in favor of Charles. She does not have to stay queen until she dies. Many European monarchs have abdicated in recent years letting their eldest take over the position. She is 90 years old and she might live until a 100, they live long in that family. Philip clearly isn’t doing great and has been in and out of the hospital in recent years. He’ll probably pass before her and I can’t see her wanting to stay queen when that happens. There is no shame in her stepping down. If the freaking pope can do it (previously a lifelong post until Benedict XVI stepped down shocking the entire Catholic world) she can do it too.
We have no tradition of voluntary abdication in Britain.
All Royal families have different traditions and rules. You can’t compare families’traditions.
That said, The Netherlands has an abdication tradition whilst in Spain, JC was forced to abdicate due to a scandal that threatened the monarchy itself, but abdication is not a tradition in that country.
Very few Monarchies abdicate.
Well the nazi Pope was forced to abdicate due to the many scandals coming to light about him covering the scandals with the pedophile prists etc. This queen had all her life a very high sense of duty and she was herself comited and scandal free. She did everything by the book. So no real reason for her to make the grand gesture of abdicating. But be sure she will do less and less with time. Don’t think anyone can force her to give up what she considers to be her duty and a right by God. As for Charles he will be the de facto king till she dies. Anyway, it’s cruel to take away her purpose to live. She could die. My grandmother died,and I quote her doctor, “because she lost every reason to live. She died of heartbreak and lonliness after loosing her husband of 60 years and also my uncle divorcing”. Sudenly the house was empty and nobody to cook for or to talk to. She just gave up.
She doesn’t have to abdicate, just hand over more and more without actually abdicating.
The British monarch takes a religious oath at the coronation. That’s not part of the other monarchies–some of which don’t even have coronations. That’s why there was a regency for George III and why it was so huge when Edward VIII did–though they got to him before his actual coronation or it may have been much harder.
I saw these photos Christmas day, and I was struck by how engaged Harry is with the crowd. Whatever his personal thoughts, he seems genuinely delighted and happy to see everyone. If I didn’t know better, I would he was heir to the throne.
William really should step aside for Harry – if nothing else, I actually think the monarchy would be more likely to survive with Harry as king than William. Harry seems to understand the realities of 21st royalty better than his brother.
On a lighter note: given the Queen’s illness and Zara’s miscarriage, props to the family for showing up together and putting on a united, happy front. I thought they all looked good.
I’m sorry, but how can anyone call Harry hot? That beard really doesn’t help matters either. I hope he marries MM just so they can get some good-looking genes into the British RF. But that’s probably too much to hope for.
I think Harry is very handsome and he looks like his mother. What sets him apart is that he has his mother’s charisma too, something his brother lacks. You want to watch him because he is so engaging, so honest and heartfelt. He would be the perfect People’s King.