King Charles and Queen Camilla Lead Royal Family Christmas Walk After Challenging Year

King Charles and Queen Camilla led the royal family’s annual Christmas walk for the third year after an especially difficult 2024 that saw both the King, 76, and Kate Middleton diagnosed with cancer.

The royal couple was accompanied by several family members as they made their way to St. Mary Magdalene Church on the Sandringham estate, where the family traditionally spends the holiday each December. The annual walk sees members of the royal family interacting with the public and is a staple in the royal diary each year.

Joining the King, 76, and Queen, 77, for the Christmas walk this year were Kate, her husband Prince William, 42, and their children Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6. Prince Edward and Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, their children Lady Louise Windsor, 21, James, Earl of Wessex, 17, Princess Anne, her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, Anne’s children Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips and their families also stepped out.

Charles publicly announced his diagnosis on Feb. 5, and Kate, 42, released a video message on March 22 announcing her own diagnosis. The types and stages of their respective cancers have not been made public, though the palace did confirm that the King’s cancer was not prostate cancer, following his January procedure for a benign enlarged prostate.

On Sept. 9, the Princess of Wales announced that her chemotherapy treatment had ended, while the King’s cancer treatment is ongoing.

“His treatment has been moving in a positive direction and as a managed condition the treatment cycle will continue into next year,” palace sources confirmed on Dec. 20.

King Charles showed his sense of humor during his final royal engagement before Christmas on Dec. 19, joking, “I’m still alive” when asked how he was doing.

The outing comes a few weeks after Camilla was forced to miss several planned royal engagements due to an ongoing chest infection that she later revealed was a form of pneumonia.

Absent from the annual occasion was the King’s younger son, Prince Harry, and his wife Meghan Markle, who were not invited to the family gathering and are thought to be celebrating the holiday in the U.S. with their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

Also missing from the walk is Prince Andrew, who is not spending Christmas at Sandringham as he did last year amid his connection to an alleged Chinese spy. Sarah Ferguson, who was present for Christmas at Sandringham in 2023 for the first time since the 1990s, was also not present. Their younger daughter, Princess Eugenie, chose to spend the holiday with her in-laws, while older sister Princess Beatrice, who is expecting her second child, had planned to join her in-laws in Italy but was advised by her doctors to avoid travel during this stage of her pregnancy.

Princess Beatrice, her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and his son Christopher Woolf, 8, joined the royals for the walk to church on Christmas. The couple’s daughter Sienna, 3, wasn’t spotted.

A new addition to Christmas at Sandringham is expected to be Camilla’s son Tom Parker Bowles, who said earlier this month, “My mum said, “I’d love you to come. I haven’t had Christmas with you for a long time.’ ”

“I genuinely know nothing about it,” he said of Christmas at Sandringham. “But I know there’s a turkey and sprouts and church. And I have to bring a suit and a dinner jacket.”

Earlier this month, Prince William shared rare details about the royal family’s Christmas plans during a visit with soldiers and their families in Bulford, Wiltshire on Dec. 10, revealing “We’ll be in Norfolk, at Sandringham. We’ll be 45 for Christmas. It won’t be quiet, it will be noisy.”

The annual Sandringham gathering on Christmas Eve includes the traditional exchange of inexpensive gag gifts on Dec. 24 and the procession on Dec. 25 from Sandringham House to St. Mary Magdalene Church on the estate. After greeting the public, they’ll return to Sandringham for a Christmas lunch that includes a traditional feast of turkey, glazed ham, roasted potatoes, parsnips, Brussels sprouts and Christmas pudding, after which they will view the King’s annual Christmas speech, which airs at 3 p.m. U.K. time each year.

“Charles has always been very, very fond of Sandringham,” royal biographer Ingrid Seward previously told PEOPLE. “Christmas within any family is always about tradition. He will keep it the same as it ever was.”

Of the Christmas walk tradition specifically, Prince William previously said that the cornerstone of Christmas Day for the royal family is “a walk that my family have done for many, many years on the way to church on Christmas Day. It must be at least 25 years by now.”

“I have strong memories of walking down here, and my grandfather [Prince Philip], he used to walk so fast that there’d be huge gaps and spaces between all of us walking down, and there’d be us at the back with little legs trying to keep up,” William continued. “You know, I think over time you start to feel quite attached to those moments and those memories before.”