WHEN the Royal Family stages its annual turkey-and-trimmings lunch on the Wednesday before Christmas, we know the festive season is finally upon us.
But this year’s meeting is perhaps also a sign of something else: that King Charles won’t be decking the halls of Buckingham Palace with holly any time soon.
For the second year in a row, the King chose to host the festive meal at Windsor Castle, breaking the Queen’s tradition of inviting her relatives to Buckingham Palace.
Windsor Castle – venue for the royal Christmas lunch for two years in a row. This is a break with tradition
The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh arrive for lunch this week
Penny Knatchbull, Countess Mountbatten of Burma was among the guests at Windsor
In part, this must be down to personal preference. Although well-aware of its importance as a national symbol, Charles has never been fond of the Palace, which is oversized, in need of renovation, and draughty.
It is also currently undergoing restoration work until 2027.
It says something that at major state dinners, including the diplomatic reception earlier this month, Charles and Camilla have taken to warming themselves with a discreet, wood-encased heater.
Charles likes his creature comforts – and the Palace is genuinely chilly.
Charles has remained in nearby Clarence House since acceding to the throne and it has already been suggested he will use Buckingham Palace as more of an office than a residence.
Royal insiders have speculated that he is in no hurry to move in.
The traditional lunch is a rare moment when the monarch’s extended family meet and allows the King to celebrate with those not invited to spend Christmas day with the senior Royals at Sandringham.
The royal relatives enjoy a sit-down down with a Sandringham-bred turkey and pull crackers in the state rooms of the castle while children under 16 eat together in St George’s Hall.
Buckingham Palace is known around the world as the home of British royalty, but it is cold and draughty
The King and Queen enjoy spending time at Birkhall House, their private home in Scotland. What will become of their other country house, Highgrove in Gloucestershire?
The decision to stage it at Windsor Castle could be a sign of other changes, changes, too.
Do the royals want the meal to be seen as more of a private family occasion than a public event – which might seem wise bearing in mind the whiff of scandal attached to certain relatives?
This week Prince Andrew was pictured arriving at Windsor Castle for lunch amid suggestions that soon-to-be released court documents will involve a fresh allegation of misbehaviour from a woman at Jeffrey Epstein’s New York mansion in 2001.
Prince Andrew has always strongly denied any wrong-doing.
Another of this year’s guests was Princess Michael of Kent, who in 2017 was forced to apologise after pictures of her arriving at the Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace showed her wearing a controversial ‘blackamoor’ brooch.
This was the first Christmas lunch at which Meghan Markle had been present.
Then there is the wider question of the Windsors’ extensive collection of mansions, palaces and castles and what to do with such grandiosity in a more egalitarian – and cost-conscious – age.
The State Dining Room at Buckingham Palace, here with the table laid in Victorian style
The King delivers last year’s Christmas message. His decision to host lunch at Windsor might suggest that Buckingham Palace is out of favour
(Last summer, the King turned down the temperature of the Buckingham Palace pool to save money, a move that did not escape the notice of staff who use it.)
Will Balmoral be opened to the public? It has been speculated. And what of Highgrove in Gloucestershire, when Charles now has another country house at Birkhall in Scotland?
There can be little doubt about the place of Windsor Castle, the home preferred by the late Queen Elizabeth, or Sandringham in Norfolk, where her father, George VI, died prematurely in 1952 (and where the Queen remained after each Christmas until the anniversary of his passing on February 6.)
None of which looks good for Buckingham Palace which, for all it is known around the world – will be a rather lonely place this Christmas and perhaps for some time t come.