Meghan to be first royal fiancée at Sandringham for Christmas
MEGHAN MARKLE will spend Christmas with the Queen at Sandringham and attend the traditional Christmas Day church service with the Royal family, it was announced yesterday.
Ms Markle will become the first royal fiancée to be included in family festivities at the Norfolk estate.
She and Prince Harry announced their engagement on Nov 27 and moved in to Nottingham Cottage, in the grounds of Kensington Palace.
The delicate question of whether or not Ms Markle will stay over at Sandringham, despite being unmarried, may be swerved: it has been suggested that the engaged couple could be guests of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at Anmer Hall, a few minutes away from Sandringham.
Ms Markle is expected to join the Princess Royal, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, the Duke of York and their respective children on Christmas Day, for the customary walk from Sandringham House to St Mary Magdalene Church.
Members of the family usually go on an impromptu walkabout, chatting to the well-wishers who line the route. Ms Markle has already proved herself to be a natural in this area, earning plaudits for the ease with which she undertook her first official public engagement with Prince Harry earlier this month when the couple spent the day in Nottingham.
A Kensington Palace spokesman confirmed: “You can expect to see the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry and Ms Markle at Sandringham on Christmas Day.”
The Duchess of Cambridge, in the year of her engagement, spent Christmas with her parents in Berkshire.
It will be Ms Markle’s first British Christmas, but the traditions at Sandringham owe a little more to Germany.
The Royal family keep to the German practice of opening their presents on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day, the church service is followed by lunch at 1pm, before everyone settles down to watch the Queen’s Christmas Speech.
Boxing Day features a pheasant shoot, but Ms Markle will have the choice not to join in as she is said to be opposed to blood sports.