The Gist
The royal family’s Christmas cards are out, from King Charles and Queen Camilla’s shot from their visit in April to Italy to Kate Middleton and Prince William’s family sitting in the grass with their kids, also in April.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have also released their family Christmas card, which doesn’t look very winter-y at all.
There’s a reason the royals’ Christmas cards don’t depict them in a winter wonderland, royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told The Daily Mail.
Bring on the royal family Christmas cards—but, wait, why do none of them look like they’re taken at Christmastime? There’s a reason for that, it turns out.
On December 6, King Charles and Queen Camilla led the way in releasing their 2025 Christmas card, which showed the couple photographed in April in Italy, right around the time of their 20th wedding anniversary. Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Christmas card—which also features kids Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis—was released on December 18 and also taken in April of this year, and features the family of five seated in the grass. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle released their family Christmas card with kids Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet on December 19, and, sure, they live in California—but it doesn’t look like the family of four is anywhere near a winter wonderland.
What gives? Well, it turns out there’s a surprising reason why royal family Christmas cards—a tradition since 1923—are never winter-themed. According to royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams, the royal family’s use of a less winter-y card is deliberate, “with a warmer image intended to convey optimism and strength as we enter into the new year,” The Daily Mail reported.
“A royal card is invariably a photograph of senders,” he said. “If they looked kitted for harsh weather, it might be viewed as symbolic, especially if the royal family has had a tough year.” (They’ve had a couple of those lately.)
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Members of the royal family at Christmas at Sandringham in 2024
Royal family Christmas cards are “an important public relations statement,” Fitzwilliams continued, adding that the royals no doubt “take a lot of care in choosing their cards,” and that the message conveyed “must be positive.”
Looking at the Prince and Princess of Wales’s family card—taken by Josh Shinner, a longtime favorite of theirs who also photographed their 2023 Christmas card—Fitzwilliams said, “A daffodil-covered backdrop in the countryside has the feel of healing and rebirth, which is an integral part of the festive season, especially when Catherine, who is promoting the merits of outdoor life to children, is in remission from cancer.”
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Kate Middleton at a VE day concert on May 8, 2025.
During her long life, Queen Elizabeth’s Christmas cards represented a “kaleidoscope of a unique reign,” Fitzwilliams said, adding that Her late Majesty mastered using “a marvelous mix of the formal and informal, indoor and outdoor,” with photos typically taken over the summer. Though different, one similarity remains throughout—“Bad weather is absent!” Fitzwilliams noted.
Prince Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 2025 Christmas card
Actually, some snow did creep into a Christmas card this year—the one released by Harry and Meghan’s nonprofit Archewell, which shows the couple walking through snow hand-in-hand while in Canada earlier this year for the latest iteration of the Invictus Games.
Read the original article on InStyle