Just days before Christmas, King Charles hosted members of the Royal Family at Windsor Castle for a holiday lunch.

The celebration took place ahead of the family moving eastwards for their annual celebrations at Sandringham in Norfolk.

The annual get-together typically happens on the Wednesday before Christmas. It represents a relatively rare occasion when the wider Royal Family gathers together as a whole. While it’s a gathering of many, it’s also an intimate time before the inner circle departs for Norfolk. Because it’s a private event, we only know who was there based on photos of family members driving in and out of the palace grounds.

Among those spotted include The Princess Royal, Mike and Zara Tindall, Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank, and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. Peter Philips was also seen arriving as well as Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi.

The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh were in attendance with their daughter, Lady Louise. Louise had made the long journey down from St Andrews where she is studying English literature in order to join in on the celebration at the start of her Christmas break. Scottish university terms are often longer than English ones. St Andrews Martinmas semester concluded just one day before she joined her uncle, The King, for the luncheon.

The luncheon continues a long tradition of Queen Elizabeth II. Last year’s celebrations were overshadowed by the loss of the late Monarch who died just months earlier in September. The 2022 lunch was the first time the family gathered since 2019 because of the pandemic.