British Royalty
Queen will probably spend Christmas in Windsor
The Queen decided not to stay in Sandringham for Christmas. Photo: Ben Stansall / Pool AFP / AP / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The Queen traditionally spends the festive season at her country estate, Sandringham House. But Corona is messing up the Queen’s Christmas plans.
The British Queen Elizabeth II (95) will not spend Christmas and New Years at her country estate in Sandringham, East England, as usual.
As the German press agency learned from palace circles, the Queen wants to stay in Windsor instead. However, she expects a visit from the royal family.
It was a “personal decision that was made after careful consideration in accordance with a preventive approach,” the PA news agency quoted an unnamed source from the royal family.
Because of the fast-spreading omicron variant of the corona virus in Great Britain, the Queen had already canceled her traditional pre-Christmas family gathering. “Too many people’s Christmas plans are at stake,” it said as a statement from palace circles.
Usually the Queen’s children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and cousins come together for lunch in Buckingham Palace the week before Christmas. The family reunion was canceled last year due to the pandemic. This year it should have taken place at Windsor Castle, as the “Sun” reported.
The Queen traditionally spends the festive season at her country estate at Sandringham House in the east of England’s county of Norfolk. Here, too, she is usually visited by parts of the immediate family. This year marks the first time since their wedding in 1947 that she has to spend the holidays without her husband Prince Philip, who died in April at the age of 99.