Queen Elizabeth’s 2020 Christmas speech.Photo: Victoria Jones - WPA Pool/Getty
Queen Elizabeth’s traditional Christmas lunch has been called off!
After last year’s festivities were canceled due to COVID restrictions, the Queen, 95, hoped to host her extended family for an annual pre-Christmas bash next week.
But the party has been canceled as a precautionary measure amid a surge in COVID rates in the U.K., so as not to jeopardize Christmas Day plans for those who were going to attend, a source confirms to PEOPLE.
The monarch is said to regret that the decision had to be made but felt it is the right thing to do under the circumstances. COVID rates are rising to record levels in the U.K. and government advisers have recommended curtailing pre-holiday gatherings.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
While the luncheon typically takes place at Buckingham Palace, this year’s event was to have taken place at Windsor Castle, where the Queen has been staying amid the ongoing pandemic.
Queen Elizabeth on Christmas Day 2019.Stephen Pond/Getty
“Whatever her private grief is, she wants to get on in as cheerful a way as possible,” a close insider tells PEOPLE of the Queen.
The party usually seesPrince WilliamandKate Middletonand their children, mingling with an array of royals, as all of the Queen’s children are typically in attendance, along with most of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The party is an annual affair for the entire family, with dozens of people attending the lunch.
Kate Middleton, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince William at Christmas 2016.Andrew Matthews - WPA Pool/Getty
TheQueen will soon travel to Sandringham Estate in Norfolk for Christmaswith other members of the royal family unless the U.K. government mandates change amid the ongoing COVID pandemic.
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Each year, members of the royal family joinQueen Elizabethat her Sandringham Estate for Christmas. Guests usually arrive in the early afternoon on Christmas Eve. (The family opens their presents on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day.) On Christmas, the family famously walks to church services at St. Mary’s Magdalene Church on her estate. After their church outing, the royal family heads back to Sandringham House for a lunch of Norfolk turkey and other festivities.
source: people.com
