This is the sixth year in a row that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle won’t be spending Christmas in Sandringham with the Royals amid reports that King Charles III didn’t invite them. But there’s a lot they can do in their local Montecito neighborhood to make the festive season merry for their children Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3, according to columnist Richard Mineards.
The Sussexes are “set to spend Yuletide in our rarefied enclave with their children, Archie and Lilibet,” he wrote in the The Montecito Journal under the headline “Local Couple Stays Home for Holidays.” The former Fleet Street royal reporter, who often speaks about the Windsors on U.S. TV, reiterated reports that the couple has “not been invited yet again to the Royal Family’s Christmas festivities in Sandringham House in Norfolk.”
However, Mineards shared that Harry and Meghan “won’t be short of activities” in Montecito as there will be events that he’s certain Archie and Lili will enjoy. He wrote: “I’m sure the youngsters would love to make their first visit to the Granada to see the State Street Ballet’s enchanting Nutcracker and welcome in 2025 with the Santa Barbara Symphony’s New Year’s Eve Pops concert, also at the same splendid auditorium. The community awaits…”
The Nutcracker is scheduled on Saturday, December 21, at 2 pm and 7:30 pm and the following day Sunday, December 22 at 2 pm. The show promises “glittering snowflakes, waltzing flowers, the Sugar Plum Fairy and her dazzling castle of characters take Clara on an exciting adventure to the Kingdom of Sweets.”
Harry and Meghan will likely spend Christmas with her mom Doria Ragland and she can probably watch over Archie and Lili if the couple decides to drop by the New Year’s Eve Pops concert, where celebrity conductor Bob Bernhardt is set to enchant the audience with a selection of Broadway classics and movie favorites, along with the circus performance of Troupe Vertigo. It’s said that they have also invited Princess Eugenie for the holidays although there’s no report if she has accepted.
The Sussexes have remained private about how the family celebrates Christmas since they moved to America in 2020. Christmas in 2017 and 2018 was spent with the Royals in Sandringham then in Canada in 2019, where the couple and Archie temporarily lived before settling in their Montecito mansion in Santa Barbara, California. Since then they’ve not celebrated the festive season in Sandringham amid reports of their ongoing rift with the Royals.
Back in 2021, Harry mentioned in an interview with James Corden that the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip sent a waffle maker for Archie for Christmas. Corden found it hard to believe saying: “You’re glossing over the fact that I cannot for the life of me imagine the Queen ordering a waffle-maker to be sent to Santa Barbara.” The Duke said that since then, breakfast consisted of organic waffles made by Meghan and he shared: “Archie literally wakes up in the morning and goes, ‘waffle.'”
Harry didn’t mention anything about his father reaching out to the family on Christmas. It’s not known if King Charles III ever interacts with his grandchildren, Archie and Lilibet, given that they’re not just miles apart from each other but that their parents are also estranged from the Royals. Whether this Christmas will give them an opportunity to reconcile for the sake of the young ones remains unclear.