Even though it’s for the best, I’ll miss seeing the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at all of the royal Christmas events, especially the church-walk on Christmas day. Meghan has been to the last two Christmas walks at Sandringham, and both appearances were positive-press moments for her. But Harry and Meghan are in the wind, so now we have to spend all of this time worrying about whether Prince Andrew will slither along the path to the church, and whether anyone from the family will walk with him. So… the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are being called on to take the heat off Andrew. This has been rumored for weeks: this could be the first year we see Princess Charlotte and Prince George on the Christmas walk!

Prince George and Princess Charlotte will make their first public Christmas outing this year, The Sun can reveal. George, six, and Charlotte, four, will walk with their parents William and Kate to church on Christmas Day. It will be the first time the Cambridges will do the famous walk from Sandringham House, where the Queen hosts Christmas, to St Mary Magdalene Church with the rest of the family.

A royal source said: “It will be so sweet. George and Charlotte will make their Christmas debut, as long as they’re both on good form on the day. It’s the picture all royal fans want to see. The royals walking to church on Christmas Day is a rite of passage and so William and Kate didn’t want to expose their children too early, but they feel they’re old enough now. After all the negative focus on Prince Andrew, these pictures will also emphasise the positive future of the Royal Family. Ultimately it’s the Queen who decides who does what on Christmas Day as it is a formal engagement. So perhaps she is conscious that this is a positive way in which to change the narrative.”

The Sun understands that Prince Andrew will also go to church along with the rest of the family but it’s likely he’ll go in the car with the Queen instead of walking from the ‘Big House’. William and Kate will leave Louis at home with Kate‘s parents while they go to church as at 18 months he’s still too young.

[From The Sun]

“…It’s likely he’ll go in the car with the Queen instead of walking…” Sure, because that’s not terrible optics too, for the Queen to once again be used as a human shield protecting her son who raped a teenage girl trafficked to him by Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted pedophile and predator, and Ghislaine Maxwell, the head of a human trafficking organization. But I’m sure Charlotte and George will be cute. Cute little human shields for Andrew too. Incidentally, this isn’t actually the first time Charlotte and George have done a “church walk.” For Christmas 2016, William, Kate and the kids spent the holiday in Bucklebury with her parents, and they did a Bucklebury “church walk” with the kids. At the time, we were like “so, William and Kate are basically announcing that they have a separate ‘court’ right?” That’s what the photos looked like – a rival royal court doing their own Christmas Day church walk. How quickly some things change.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red and Backgrid.