25 December 2023 , 17:51
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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Christmases have been different since they left the royal family in 2020.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex last spent the festive period with the Royal Family on the Sandringham Estate in 2018. A year later, they decided to celebrate in America with Meghan's mother, Doria Ragland before stepping back from The Firm in 2020 and permanently moving to the States.
The former royal spoke about his first Christmas without his family in his explosive tell-all, Spare, which released earlier this year. He explained that in his and Meghan's first Christmas away from the royal family back in 2020, the pair bought a "magnificent" tree for their Montecito home.
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Meghan enjoys decorating trees (Netflix)
Little Archie had a small mishap (WireImage)He added that they had purchased "one of the biggest spruces" from a pop-up in Santa Barbara, and decorated it with a very special ornament that paid tribute to his family in the UK. The couple opened presents on Christmas Eve, in line with Harry's UK traditions and Meghan made him feel both "happy" and "weird," he wrote.
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"One present was a little Christmas ornament of...the Queen! I roared. What the—? Meg had spotted it in a local store and thought I might like it. I held it to the light. It was Granny’s face to a T," Harry said in his memoir. "I hung it on an eye-level branch. It made me happy to see her there. It made Meg and me smile."
He went on to share that their son Prince Archie, then 19 months old, had a small accident with their tree and the ornament that Meghan had bought for him. "But then Archie, playing around the tree, jostled the stand, shook the tree, and Granny fell. I heard a smash and turned. Pieces lay all over the floor," Harry explained.
"Archie ran and grabbed a spray bottle. For some reason he thought spraying water on the broken pieces would fix it. Meg said: No, Archie, no - do not spray Gan-Gan! I grabbed a dustpan and swept up the pieces, all the while thinking: 'This is weird.'"
Meghan and Harry haven't spent Christmas in the UK since 2020 (Getty Images)Meghan also recalled her own Christmas memories with her family during an interview with E! News at Variety's Power of Women event in November. The Duchess of Sussex opened up about her all-time favourite ritual every Christmas with her family. “I love trimming and decorating the tree with my children.
"We’re creating new ones now that our little ones are growing up,” she added. “And we’re enjoying every moment of it.”