Queen to spend Christmas Day with Charles and Camilla

The Queen will spend Christmas Day with the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, a Clarence House spokesman has said.

Prince Charles and Camilla will join the 95-year-old monarch at Windsor, after spending last Christmas at Highgrove, their country estate in Gloucestershire.

It comes after Princess Anne's husband Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence tested positive for coronavirus yesterday, meaning they will now not be spending Christmas with the Queen due to being in isolation.

Prince William and Kate will be spending Christmas at their home in Norfolk and will be joined by members of the Middleton family.

The Queen usually hosts her family at Sandringham in Norfolk, which sees crowds of people gathering to watch the royals walk to the Christmas Day service at St Mary Magdalene Church on the estate.

However, it was revealed last week that the Queen had cancelled plans for her pre-Christmas family lunch as COVID cases continue to rise.

Last year's lunch was also cancelled for the Royal Family because of the pandemic.

The Queen also spent last Christmas at Windsor, where she stayed shielded with her now late husband Prince Philip throughout lockdowns.

This will be her first Christmas without the Duke of Edinburgh after he died in April this year.

In October this year, the Queen was admitted to hospital overnight for preliminary investigations and ordered by her doctors to rest.

Christmas celebrations for the royals were moved to Sandringham in 1988 when Windsor Castle was being rewired.