One week before Christmas, Queen Elizabeth II cancels her traditional pre-Christmas lunch
Sylvie Claire / December 20, 2021
As a precaution, Queen Elizabeth II decided to cancel her traditional pre-Christmas lunch. This meal usually gathers 50 people of her family at Windsor Castle. But this year, it will not take place, because of the Omicron variant.
Every year, the day before she leaves for Sandringham Castle in Norfolk, where Queen Elizabeth II spends the festive season, the sovereign gathers her large family for a pre-Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace. This gigantic meal was not held last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be cancelled again, due to the worsening health situation in England. The Omicron variant is causing an explosion of cases. New restrictions are in force for the English population.
The monarch planned to organize this Christmas lunch, this Tuesday, December 21, 2021, in her Windsor Castle, where she currently resides. No less than 50 people were expected to attend: her children, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but also her first cousins the Kents and the Gloucesters and their families. Finally, as reported by the Daily Mail, Her Majesty cancelled it with regret, as a precaution to try to save the festive plans of her relatives.
This year, it is the first time that the 95-year-old sovereign will spend the festive season without her husband Prince Philip, who died on April 9, 2021.