The royal family’s Christmas traditions run deep — but there is one that Prince William admitted he doesn’t take part in.
Earlier this month, the Prince of Wales, 42, confessed at a party for the 1st Battalion Mercian Regiment — where he handed out Christmas presents to children and families alike — that he doesn’t own a Christmas sweater, per Hello!.
After 14-year-old Dylan Potter told the royal that he was wearing two festive Christmas sweaters, William laughed, pointed to himself and said, “Some people don’t even own one.”
When he was asked why he wasn’t wearing a sweater, Prince William pointed across the room at his new equerry, Squadron Leader Mike Reynolds, and jokingly said, “I didn’t know. You see that guy in the jacket? It’s his fault, and I will be having a word.”
He may not have a Christmas sweater on hand, but the Prince of Wales is currently taking part in Christmas Day festivities with many other members of the royal family at Sandringham, where the family traditionally spends the holiday. In addition to the tradition of opening gag gifts on Christmas Eve, Prince William, his wife Kate Middleton, 42, and their three children Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6, took part in the traditional Christmas Day walk to church at St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate before watching King Charles’ annual Christmas speech at 3 p.m. U.K. time.
William is expected to spend the holiday with 45 members of his family “all in one room,” Prince William said, adding they are “normally spread out.” While on that same visit in Wiltshire, the Prince of Wales admitted that one of his favorite parts of Christmas is going on a long walk with the dogs is always a Dec. 25 highlight.
“We spoke about what he was up to for Christmas and enjoying walks with his dogs at Sandringham,” Leah St. Clair-Lewis told Hello!. She represents WRVS Services Welfare, a charity that provides welfare to members of the British Army.
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The royal family are known dog lovers, from Queen Elizabeth’s famous corgis to the Wales family’s black cocker spaniel, Orla, who will no doubt join her family for Christmas at Sandringham. It will be a bittersweet walk with the dogs for Queen Camilla, who lost her Jack Russell Terrier Beth earlier this year — though her other dog of the same breed, Bluebell, will no doubt be on hand for the traditional walk on Sandringham’s grounds.
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