The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been front and centre in 2024. And from their brand new Netflix documentary series, to Meghan Markle's highly-anticipated Californian lifestyle label, American Riviera Orchard, they have been making non-stop headlines.
It is their relationship with the rest of the Mountbatten-Windsors that has made the most news, particularly over the Christmas holidays, with the royal family said to have extended an olive branch. And with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle even inviting four royal family members to Montecito for the holidays, there are hopes for a reconciliation in the New Year.
Despite the Duke and Duchess of Sussex spending the Christmas holidays apart from the royal family, they have reportedly integrated some royal traditions into their own California festivities.
This, according to Prince Harry, is particularly true of the present exchange, with the Sussexes - like the rest of the Mountbatten-Windsors, opting to open their presents on Christmas Eve.
“We FaceTimed with several friends, including a few in Britain,” Prince Harry wrote in his 2023 memoir, Spare, of their Californian Christmas. “We watched Archie running around the tree. And we opened presents. Keeping to the Windsor family tradition.”
He continued: “The whole family gathered to open gifts on Christmas Eve, as always, a German tradition that survived the anglicising of the family surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor.”
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have also previously opened up about the magic of creating new Christmas traditions with their children - from trimming the tree to putting out “the carrots for the reindeer.”
"We're creating new [traditions] now that our little ones are growing up. And we're enjoying every moment of it," Markle explained in a 2023 interview with E! News during Variety's Power of Women event. “I love trimming and decorating the tree with my children."
"At first, I think as a mom with children you’re just enjoying having them there, but they’re not understanding everything that’s happening yet,” Markle also previously explained to Marie Claire. “But now we’re at the age where I just can’t wait to see it through their lens every year."
Well, that's lovely.
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