Christmas is a time to eat, drink and be merry with your nearest and dearest. And for King Charles that small circle of friends and family looks set to be expanded to include more on his festive guest list – with reports of wife Queen Camilla asking her own family to join them.
But it’s not without expense, as disgruntled staff are being told to make way for the extra visitors to Sandringham, reports MailOnline.
Daily Mail columnist Ephraim Hardcastle said: “The King’s decision to expand the guest list for Christmas at Sandringham hasn’t been met with universal festive joy. Making space for Queen Camilla’s children and grandchildren means that some staff are disgruntled.
“They have been told to give up their rooms to accommodate the visitors and rough it in smaller quarters and even share rooms.”
He goes on to say that Prince Andrew and former wife Sarah Ferguson won’t be staying at Sandringham – merely driving over for “meals and church”.
It was a royal source who said the extra guests will come in form of Queen Camilla’s family. They said that the Queen “has invited her children and grandchildren this year which is different from previous years,” reports MailOnline.
An insider told ITV: “The addition of the Queen’s family means extra space is needed.”
Despite the changes to this year’s Christmas guest list at Sandringham it seems that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are still not expected to be there.
The Sussexes have now skipped Christmas at Sandringham four years in a row. However, former butler Grant Harrold believes the right thing to do is to extend an invitation and leave it up to them if they’d like to accept.
Harrold – Charles’s butler from 2004 to 2011 – believes that “if they aren’t invited, it doesn’t look good on King Charles”. He said to Slingo “that if they [the Sussexes] decide not to go, that’s on them”.
“But it would be a bad thing either way. It’s a big statement to make,” the former butler said. He added: “I would like to think they would be there, especially at Christmas.”
Christmas this year is the Royal Family’s second without the late Queen Elizabeth II.
