Kate Middleton and Prince William Pick Kids up for the Holidays

It’s officially Christmas break for Kate Middleton, Prince William, and their three kids, as much as any member of the increasingly busy royal family gets to take time off. Lambrook School, the Berkshire institution attended by Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, closed for the holidays on Friday, December 13, for a three-and-a-half-week break that ends on January 8, 2025.

That school holiday is already starting to book up, it seems. The annual Together at Christmas carol event is already in their rearview mirrors (the in-person concert was December 6, with a UK broadcast scheduled for Christmas Eve), and the family has headed to their longstanding country home of Anmer Hall, Kate Middleton and Prince William’s casual abode on the royals’ Sandringham Estate. The Georgian-style house, a wedding gift to the couple from Queen Elizabeth II, is reportedly haunted—but ghosts appear to be part of the British Christmas tradition if Charles Dickens is to be believed.

Also part of the family’s tradition is the annual family celebration at Sandringham, which begins with a Christmas Day service at Sandringham Church then—per Princess Diana—a midday dinner punctuated with “silly behavior” and inside jokes. This year, royal sources say, about 40 family members will be present for “one of the biggest family Christmases ever.”

“Actually the plan is for them to all be at Sandringham for a very special big family Christmas. William and Catherine and the children will be there. The king and queen want their nearest and dearest with them to celebrate,” a source told Vanity Fair earlier this week.

Reportedly absent from the guest list are Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, as well as their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. The couple, who are said to remain estranged from William and Kate, as well as King Charles III and Queen Camilla, reportedly invited two of that 40-guest list to skip out on Sandringham for a celebration in sunny California. According to The Daily Express, Harry and Meghan invited Harry’s cousin, Princess Eugenie, her husband, Jack Brooksbank, and their kids, August and Ernest, to their Montecito home for the holidays. As of publication time, it’s unknown if that invitation was accepted.