Royals
Prince William Shares Memory About Walking To Church On Christmas Morning As A Kid
“There'd be us at the back with little legs trying to keep up.”
Christmas for the royal family will be markedly different than those in the past. Queen Elizabeth will spend her very first Christmas without her husband Prince Philip, who passed away in April at the age of 99 years old. Her Majesty will most certainly not be the only member of the family feeling the loss of Prince Philip this holiday season, of course. His entire family will be missing him. Prince William even remembered a lovely story about spending Christmas at Sandringham with Prince Philip during a recent interview on the Apple Fitness+ Time To Walk podcast. And it was a sweet reminder of just how much Prince Philip meant to his family, especially around the holidays.
The royal family always walks to St. Mary Magdalene Church from their Sandringham Estate on Christmas morning, and Prince Philip liked to lead the pack. Quite literally. “I have strong memories of walking down here, and my grandfather, he used to walk so fast that there'd be huge gaps and spaces between all of us walking down, and there'd be us at the back with little legs trying to keep up,” the Duke of Cambridge shared in his podcast interview.
Now that his grandfather is gone, Prince William finds himself feeling quite nostalgic about those earlier years. “You know, I think, over time, you start to feel quite attached to those moments and those memories before,” he said.
The dad of three also shared a little behind-the-scenes look at how he and his royal cousins behaved during Christmas morning church services, which are never thankfully never filmed. “What's very good about it is that we sit opposite each other as a family, and growing up, having my cousins sat opposite me has always been quite difficult to keep a straight face at times, I have had the giggles many, many times in the service. Luckily, no one's filming it. So you can get away with it, and on Christmas Day, it's fun to have a giggle and enjoy yourself.”
Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton are reportedly planning on spending Christmas at Sandringham with Queen Elizabeth and other members of the royal family this year. Those same royal cousins who once giggled in church are now parents themselves. The grandfather they raced to catch up to on their Christmas morning walk is gone. Hopefully the next generation will pick up the torch and get fits of the giggles during the church service. It feels fitting.
