Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s royal Christmas tradition they’ve kept despite Megxit

When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle moved to California, they forged a brand new life, leaving behind the formalities they were once used to.

Whilst Meghan’s home turf is the sunshine of California, for Harry, it meant a total break from pretty much everything he had ever known – and a whole new environment to which they had to adapt their family life as a couple. Since leaving life as working royals behind, the Sussexes have not been shy about airing their grievances with some of the other royals and have opened up repeatedly about the struggles they faced as a family living in the bright spotlight that is constantly trained on the House of Windsor.

Despite how quickly the pair seemed to settle into the rhythm of things in California, some habits die hard – particularly when it comes to the festive season. Prince Harry has revealed that there is one aspect of a royal Christmas that he still keeps up with his family in California, when he and Meghan celebrate the festive season with their two children: Archie, five, and Lilibet, three.

Harry made the admission that he keeps this tradition up in his memoir Spare, when he described his and Meghan’s first festive season in their new home. “It was Christmas Eve,” the Duke of Sussex wrote, “We FaceTimed with several friends, including a few in Britain. We watched Archie running around the tree. And we opened presents. Keeping to the Windsor family tradition.”

The royals have exchanged their Christmas presents on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day for nearly two centuries, and it is a nod to their German heritage, where this is the normal custom. This tradition is said to have been instituted by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert – Victoria’s husband was German and also helped popularise the use of Christmas trees in the UK, another imported custom.

Whilst Harry has been keen to stick with his family’s custom of exchanging presents on Christmas Eve, one member of the Royal Family is reportedly keen to switch this up and thinks the practice is “weird.” As reported in the Daily Beast, Princess Kate isn’t totally sold on the gift exchange happening out of line with the rest of the country and is keen to change this tradition in the future. “Kate has always found the presents on Christmas Eve thing weird,” a source said to the publication.

“It is definitely going to be got rid of when they are officially running things. I imagine it will continue this year at Sandringham in some shape or form but everything is going to be much more relaxed and have a middle-class flavor at Anmer Hall. You can bet your bottom dollar they will be doing proper presents for each other and the kids there on Christmas Day.”

Queen Elizabeth – Harry’s grandmother – is said to have enjoyed the incredibly old tradition for a couple of reasons. First, she is said to have been a massive fan of Queen Victoria and admired her ancestor hugely, and secondly, as a devoted Christian, the former monarch preferred to keep Christmas Day clear to focus on the religious aspects of the holiday over the exchanging of material things.

Meghan kept up another important tradition from Harry’s family during their first Christmas in California, which must have helped him feel even more at home in their new life. When they swapped presents, she included a little gag gift for her husband—a Christmas ornament of the late Queen to hang on their tree.

Swapping smaller, often jokey presents, is another longheld Royal Family tradition – with Princess Kate once reportedly buying Harry a ‘grow your own girlfriend’ kit, long before he met his now-wife Meghan.

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Source: Mirror