Christmas may not be a happy time for Prince Harry. At least not entirely. An insider says the festive season may serve as a sad reminder of the state of his relationship with his royal relatives while they celebrate in England while he’s thousands of miles away in the U.S.
Christmas may remind Harry he has no one from ‘his side of the family to celebrate with’
Not being invited to the royal family’s Christmas celebration, combined with the fact that the Duke of Sussex will be spending another holiday season away from his family, will, a source has claimed, possibly cause the 40-year-old some “hurt.”
“For Harry, it reminds him that he doesn’t have any of his side of the family to celebrate with,” the insider told OK!, per Express. “The kids [Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3,] won’t be seeing their cousins,” Prince William and Kate Middleton’s children: Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6. “That was one of his favourite [sic] things growing up—all the cousins playing together at Sandringham.”
That’s not all. Seeing his father, King Charles III, spending time with his brother, aunts, uncles, and cousins is likely to add another layer of sadness amid Harry’s ongoing rift with the royal family. “It may well even hurt seeing all the royals together, going to church, and just enjoying each other’s company.”
Harry hasn’t seen his father since February 2024 when he flew to London, England, shortly after Buckingham Palace announced the king’s cancer diagnosis. As for the Prince of Wales, 42, Harry and William didn’t reportedly talk when they went to a memorial for their maternal uncle in August 2024.
Harry hasn’t spent Christmas with the royal family since 2018
Six years have passed since Harry celebrated Christmas with their fellow British royals. 2018 marked the last time he—and Meghan Markle—went to the royal family’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England, for festivities including gag gifts, a big meal, and the annual Christmas morning walk to church.
The couple walked with William and Kate just like they did a year earlier in 2017 when the Duchess of Sussex, 43, joined the royals for the first time.
In the years since Harry and Meghan have celebrated Christmas privately. That means no live footage of them on Christmas Day, just the occasional holiday card. They’re now understood to celebrate at home in Montecito, California, with Archie and Lili.
However, there’s still a chance they may, like a previous report claimed, decide to break with celebrating Christmas at home and spend the holiday in England with Princess Diana’s Spencer family relatives.
He still follows the royal family tradition of opening presents on Christmas Eve
Although Harry’s not close with the royal family and hasn’t had a royal Christmas in years, there is still one tradition he’s carried over to his life in California. He revealed in his January 2023 memoir, Spare, that he and Meghan follow the royal family’s tradition of opening presents not on Christmas morning but on Christmas Eve.
“It was Christmas Eve. We FaceTimed with several friends, including a few in Britain. We watched Archie running around the tree. And we opened presents. Keeping to the Windsor family tradition,” he wrote (via Express).
It’s a nod to German tradition, which was introduced to the British royal family by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, who was German.
