The annual tradition, normally held at Buckingham Palace, was canceled last year amid a surge in COVID rates in the U.K.
The royal family’s Christmas lunch is back!
After being canceled the previous two years amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the royals gathered on Tuesday for an annual pre-Christmas event. Although the lunch was normally held at Buckingham Palace in London, members of the family were spotted driving into Windsor Castle for the event, which is a private gathering.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrived separately for the event, making their first time hosting the event since Charles became monarch following Queen Elizabeth’s death in September.
Other family members seen driving onto the castle grounds included Charles’ siblings Princess Anne (with her husband, Sir Tim Laurence) and Prince Edward (with his wife, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, and their daughter, Lady Louise). Princess Anne’s daughter, Zara, arrived with her husband, Mike Tindall, who took the wheel as the couple’s children were spotted in the backseat of the vehicle.
Prince and Princess Michael of Kent were in attendance, along with the Duke of Kent.
Not seen driving were Charles’ son Prince William and daughter-in-law Kate Middleton along with their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. But that’s likely because it was a short commute for the Prince and Princess of Wales — earlier this year, they moved to Adelaide Cottage on the Windsor Castle grounds.
Prince William and Princess Kate, both 40, are regulars at the holiday event, along with their children.
After two years of celebrating the holidays largely separated, Christmas for the British royal family will return to normality this year — complete with gathering at Sandringham, exchanging gag gifts on Christmas Eve and walking to church on Christmas morning. However, they will be missing their matriarch, Queen Elizabeth
“It will be hard, as the Queen was all they knew, like most of Britain,” a former palace staffer tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue.
The staffer adds, “The first year is most difficult, as it is always the first of everything that you notice
Remembering Queen Elizabeth was also a large part of Kate’s second annual Christmas carol concert at Westminster Abbey held last week, an event that will be broadcast via ITV on Christmas Eve.
“This carol service is dedicated to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and to all those who are sadly no longer with us. Her Late Majesty’s strongly held values of duty, compassion and faith have guided the creation of this service,” a message inside the program for Royal Carols: Together at Christmas said.
During the service, Prince William also read part of his grandmother’s Christmas broadcast from 2012.
Despite Queen Elizabeth’s absence, they’ll be surrounded by reminders of the history-making monarch at her beloved country estate in Norfolk for the holiday.
“Charles has always been very, very fond of Sandringham,” royal biographer Ingrid Seward tells PEOPLE. “Christmas within any family is always about tradition. He will keep it the same as it ever was.”
