Oh, under every roof – even the most glamorous royal family will probably not celebrate this Christmas completely carefree. And that is not only due to the Corona crisis.
London / Copenhagen – Christmas will probably not be completely carefree and exuberant this year either – this also applies to the European royal families. Not only the corona pandemic should depress the mood.
For some it is the first Christmas without a loved one, others are in poor health. Even in the palaces, the following applies: under every roof there is an oh.
GREAT BRITAIN: For the Royal Family and the Queen, it’s the first Christmas without Prince Philip. Queen Elizabeth II’s husband (95) died in April shortly before his 100th birthday.
Although her health was recently in poor health, the Queen is said to have initially insisted on celebrating together at the royal country estate of Sandringham and going to church there. However, the rapidly expanding Omicron variant of Corona thwarted the bill.
A few days before Christmas, it became known that the Queen – as in the previous year, which was marked by the pandemic – would stay at Windsor Castle and receive visitors there. Her eldest son Prince Charles (73) and his wife Duchess Camilla (74) are coming, as a spokesman for the heir to the throne announced. It was initially unclear whether there would be other family members in addition to Charles and Camilla.
MONACO: On Christmas Day, Prince Albert II and the children Jacques and Gabriella (7) visit Princess Charlène in a clinic outside the Principality. For a few weeks now, Charlène has been receiving medical treatment there to recover from health problems. The recovery is going well, said the Monegasque palace. It should take a few more months before the princess is well again.
At the beginning of November, the 43-year-old returned to Monaco after months in her home in South Africa. Shortly afterwards she came for treatment. Charlène originally traveled to South Africa to support the fight against rhino poaching. A little later, she reported to local media that an oral surgery performed before her trip had delayed her return to Europe.
On Instagram, however, Charlène shared Christmas wishes with a drawn card that shows her and the family in front of a decorated Christmas tree.
DENMARK: Queen Margrethe II (81) and her family will be back at Marselisborg Castle in Aarhus for the holidays. The monarch arrived on December 20th, and she will spend Christmas Eve there with the family of Crown Prince Frederik (53). Since Margrethe ascended the throne almost 50 years ago, it has become a tradition for her to spend the Easter and often Christmas days in Marselisborg.
The family of their second son Prince Joachim (52) will not be there: Frederik’s younger brother will celebrate Christmas with his wife Princess Marie (45) and their two children Prince Henrik (12) and Princess Athena (9) at Marie’s family in France . Margrethe canceled a New Year’s table with high-ranking politicians due to the recently tightened corona restrictions in the country.
SWEDEN: The Swedish royal family will celebrate Christmas privately in the family circle, it is only said from the castle in Stockholm on dpa request. King Carl XVI. Gustaf (75) is likely to give another speech at Christmas and also address the Corona period – he had already done that the previous year when he spoke to his compatriots from Drottningholm Palace, not from the Stockholm Royal Palace, as is usually the case .
SPAIN: The royal family is expected to celebrate Christmas without Old King Juan Carlos again this year. The former head of state, who is in distress due to allegations of corruption, will be spending Christmas in Abu Dhabi away from his Spanish homeland for the second time.
The investigation against the 83-year-old father of King Felipe VI. (53) have only just been extended for six months. Juan Carlos had hoped they would finally be hired by December 17th and had expressed the wish to return home then. He secretly left Spain in August 2020.
Traditionally, nothing is communicated about how King Felipe and Queen Leticia (49) and their two daughters, heir to the throne Leonor (16) and Princess Sofía (14), celebrate Christmas. On Christmas Eve at 9 p.m., as every year, the King’s Christmas address will be broadcast on television and on the Internet.
NETHERLANDS: Finally King Willem-Alexander (54) and Queen Máxima (50) are together again with all three daughters. “The festive season is coming: back home together,” the farm recently tweeted and showed a photo of the family.
The holidays are approaching: it’s time to get back home together. pic.twitter.com/xst45hCEjH
— Royal House (@royalhouse) December 11, 2021
Crown Princess Amalia (18) graduated from high school in the summer and is now spending the time leading up to her studies next year with trips and internships at companies. The court does not disclose what or where she has been in the past few months. Her sister Alexia (16) has been attending boarding school in Wales since September – together with the Spanish Crown Princess Leonor. Alexia came home for the holidays though. Because of the corona rules, the parents were not allowed to visit her in the meantime. Only 14-year-old Ariane still lives permanently in the Huis ten Bosch palace in The Hague.
How exactly the Oranjes spend the holidays is a private matter and will not be communicated. But you should beware of big parties: Just recently the family angered the people because, despite the strict Corona rules, they had celebrated Crown Princess Amalia’s 18th birthday on December 7th. Dozens of guests are said to have been at the party in the palace garden. The Dutch should only receive a maximum of four visitors a day.
BELGIUM: The Belgian royal family has traditionally been buttoned up when it comes to the private life of the royal family. When asked, the palace only said that King Philippe and Queen Mathilde will spend the Christmas season with their children – these are Crown Princess Elisabeth (20), who studies history and politics at the University of Oxford, 18-year-old Prince Gabriel, Prince Emmanuel (16) and little sister Eléonore (13). dpa
