Harry’s Meghan makes her mark on the royals

Sea change with lunch invite for Christmas

STEP by elegant step, Meghan Markle is transforming Britain’s royal family. The announcement this week by Buckingham Palace that Prince Harry’s fiancee will join the queen for Christmas at Sandringham and attend the traditional church service is not just a benevolent gesture from monarch to a much-loved grandson.

It is a sea change in the Victorian attitudes which have coloured the royal approach to modern life.

No such invitation was extended to Kate Middleton, nor to Camilla Parker Bowles and certainly not to Lady Diana Spencer before they married into the family.

The speed with which the star of the TV show Suits is being absorbed into the royal world while still not a royal has amazed even the most up-todate courtiers.

Markle and Harry announced their engagement on November 27, travelled to their first public outing on December 1 and will be seen in public with all the senior members of the royal family in 11 days’ time when they attend the traditional Christmas Day service on the queen’s estate in Norfolk.

It will be a testing time for Los Angeles-born Markle. No unmarried partner has ever been permitted to sit at that polished long table for the family lunch.

One thing that Markle will be grateful to avoid is the scramble for the best bedrooms – en-suite dressing rooms are particularly prized. Instead of sleeping under the queen’s roof at Sandringham House, Markle and Harry are expected to billet themselves with William and Kate at Anmer Hall, the Cambridges’ country house a short drive away.

So what is in store for Mar- kle and how will she bear up to all those royal eccentricities as she scatters some Hollywood glamour over this most traditional of gatherings?

The first thing she will have to get used to is that the royals follow the German custom of handing out presents on Christmas Eve. Few of the presents are extravagant.

“When you have everything, you have to have something you can use, something practical rather than decorative,” said a servant who has witnessed these scenes. “The queen likes things for picnics or for a barbecue, a rug perhaps. Once, she unwrapped a washing-up apron and was thrilled.”

Typically, the candlelit black- tie dinner, served at 8.30pm, will be potted Norfolk shrimps, locally shot game or a lamb dish followed by tarte tartin with brandy creme or a souffle, all served on the finest china and silverware. The next morning, after Prince George and Princess Charlotte open their stockings, Markle and Harry will be readying themselves for the crowds who will greet them outside church.

If the weather is fine, the younger royals will walk. Then comes Markle’s most critical moment – Christmas Day lunch. It’s traditional fare of turkey with all the trimmings and is followed by not one but two flaming Christmas puddings. Guests sit down at 1.15pm prompt and it’s all over in an hour.

By the time she and Harry leave, Markle will also have packed in a post-prandial walk and, of course, watched the queen’s Christmas message on television along with everyone else. Whether the actress suggests the family sit down to watch a couple of episodes of Suits after the monarch’s message remains to be seen. – Daily Mail

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PICTURE: AP Britain’s queen is breaking with tradition and inviting Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle to join her at Sandringham this Christmas.