- - Inside Christmas Break with the Royals at Sandringham (Hint: It 'Isn't All That Relaxing')

Simon PerryDecember 27, 2025 at 6:30 PM

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Sandringham's St. Mary Magdalene Church in the snow -

King Charles is hosting the winter holiday at Sandringham House, in Norfolk, U.K., continuing a tradition of his late mother

The holidays see the royal family taking part in shooting parties and other activities around the vast 20,000-acre estate

Kate Middleton, Prince William and their children live on the estate and joined the family for Christmas on Dec. 25

King Charles has kept his mother Queen Elizabeth’s tradition of spending the holidays at the family’s home in the English countryside.

After arriving at Sandringham House, shortly before Christmas, the King and many of his extended family are, like the late Queen, spending an extended break in the area about 100 miles north of London.

There, shooting parties for the royals and their friends provide much of the entertainment after the Christmas presents and lunch at the big house are over.

The royals have owned the house and the estate, which has grown to around 20,000 acres, since 1862 — and the traditions are almost as old as that. A look into their daily routines was shared by Queen Elizabeth's longstanding aide and dresser Angela Kelly in her 2019 book, The Other Side of the Coin.

The holidays are filled with guests, royals and other close friends and relatives, as shooting parties still provide a mainstay of the entertainment.

“The house is buzzing, and I love to hear the children running around, laughing and playing. It looks magical, too, with the tree and all the Christmas decorations,” Kelly wrote.

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King Charles and Queen Camilla and Prince William and Princess Kate and their children on Dec. 25, 2024

The late Queen would stay there until and just after Feb. 6, the anniversary of the death of her father, King George VI. King Charles tends to keep his household based there for several days after Christmas, but it doesn’t last nearly as long.

But, like his mother, King Charles carries on working there. Charles, who announced some good news on Dec. 12 that his cancer treatment will be reduced in the new year, was visited by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in March 2025, for example. The only day that the ministerial red boxes from the U.K. government aren’t arriving and needing the monarch's attention is on Christmas Day.

With it being a vacation, there is a different kind of busy: that of entertaining.

“Like Balmoral [in Scotland], Sandringham is for holidays, although spending time at either house isn’t all that relaxing, as there is a lot to do and many events to attend," Kelly wrote in 2019.

Located in the east of England, the weather “can change so quickly around Sandringham,” wrote Kelly, who was mindful of the different outfits she had to prepare for her boss. "It can be beautiful one day and freezing the next."

For King Charles, a dresser would be replaced by his valet and one of his equerries.

The King has kept many of his late mother’s traditions. With Prince William and Kate Middleton having their country home, Anmer Hall, about a mile from the main house, they have continued by adding to and creating their own traditions.

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Sandringham House in Norfolk, U.K.

Prince William — who, like his closest friends, is passionate about shooting — enjoys the sport around the estate over the period, and much of the socializing is based around the pheasant shoots. That means changing out of the day wear of tweeds and sports coat that King Charles will wear for his meetings with private secretaries (there is always one senior aide on duty when he is at the house). Irrespective of gender, the shooting “outfit is all about warmth and comfort — and the layers,” Kelly writes.

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Sandringham gained notoriety in the winter of 2020 when a summit of the most senior members of the family took place there to decide the fate of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who wanted to step back from their working royal lives and start a new direction elsewhere. The couple relocated to California, Meghan's home state, later that year.

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