Queen Camilla receives somber note from children this holiday season

Queen Camilla’s children, Tom Bowles and Laura Lopes, have confirmed they won’t be joining the royal family at Sandringham this year for Christmas. 

Last year, both attended in the wake of King Charles’s cancer diagnosis, but this year marks a return to a more flexible, “every other year” arrangement.

Speaking to The Daily Mail, Tom quipped: “I’m not spending Christmas at Sandringham. Nor is my sister. 

It’ll be one year on, one year off.” The food writer added that he’ll be keeping things low-key, bunking on the sofa at his ex-wife Sara Buys’s home.

Meanwhile, the King appears to have dodged a potential royal headache thanks to his estranged brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. 

Andrew’s reluctance to vacate Royal Lodge has delayed any plans to relocate to Sandringham, leaving him uninvited to this year’s festivities—a timing insiders describe as “rather fortuitous.”

After two intense years of family and health challenges, the Norfolk estate will welcome a slightly quieter Christmas, giving King Charles and Queen Camilla a chance to enjoy the holidays on their own terms.

If King Charles decides to make Sandringham his permanent Christmas base next year, he may shake up royal tradition by moving the festive celebrations to Windsor Castle. 

The plan would harken back to Queen Victoria, who famously established Berkshire as a seasonal royal retreat.