It’s not the holidays if there’s no family drama, and for the royal family, it looks like there is a classic bit of stepbrother feuding afoot. The Daily Beast has reported that while Prince William has made his peace with his father’s affair-to-marriage with Queen Camilla, if there is one person he does not want to see on Christmas, it’s Camilla’s son, renowned food critic Tom Parker Bowles. Sources previously told the outlet that William takes issue with Bowles’ “louche lifestyle.” Though he better watch out, because Camilla might take the diss personally, considering Bowles once gave her high praise for her own cooking.
However, it sounds like someone may have waved a white flag, with Bowles revealing that this year he may be attending his first Christmas with the royals. He told The Telegraph, “My mum said ‘I’d love you to come, I haven’t had Christmas with you for a long time,” though he added that his attendance still wasn’t yet set in stone. Perhaps William can find it in his heart to forgive Bowles for whatever it is he disapproves of, because it certainly appears that Bowles empathizes with him. “I learned a long time ago not to put my fat fingers into the world of William and Harry, but it was appalling what they went through. I’ve had a billionth of what they’ve had to go through but hell, I sympathize.” If forgiveness is in the air, a royal family Christmas miracle sounds like the kind of Hallmark movie that we can get behind.
Prince William is planning his own Christmas take over
Not content to monitor the guest list, Prince William and Kate Middleton are putting their reputation at stake and throwing their own Christmas celebration. According to the Daily Beast, William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales are having a separate, more informal affair at Anmer Hall, their home on the Sandringham estate, though they will attend some official events. Royal family Christmas plans are up in the air partly because of King Charles III’s ongoing cancer treatment, while some of William and Kate’s decisions are attributed to the difficult year that Kate had with her own health issues. But a source told the Daily Beast that it is also an effort by William and Kate to rebrand their holiday as more “middle class” as they attempt to downplay the traditional royal Christmas events like the pheasant hunt and the all-hands-on-deck walk to the Christmas morning church service, though both are still planned. Their grand plan to blue-collar Christmas is to post on social media as they do movie marathons and eat sweets.
Another custom set to go is giving out gifts on Christmas Eve instead of on Christmas Day, with a source telling the Daily Beast, “Kate has always found the presents on Christmas Eve thing weird. It is definitely going to be got rid of when they are officially running things.” It’s always drama with the royal family, even in the pursuit of normality, with a friend of William’s telling the Daily Beast that William was “enthusiastic about embracing Kate’s much more normal conception of Christmas,” then deepening the gossip by adding, “It’s always been a slightly covert, rival Christmas party at their house, but it’s going to be much more obvious this year. If they post pictures, it’ll be an official coup attempt.”
