One King Charles’ unusual Christmas dinner guests missing from this year’s celebration

After a stressful year littered with health woes, the Royal Family were able to safely come together this Christmas to mark the end of a gruelling year, with members of the extended family heading to Sandringham to celebrate the festive season.

However, this year a slimmed down guest list saw several family members missing, including Prince Andrew, Sarah Ferguson, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Yet while these absences were all well publicised in advance, there were also two more iconic guests who were notably absent – and it isn’t who you might expect.

Former royal chef Darren McGrady previously revealed to the Mail on Sunday that in Christmases past, even the late Queen’s corgis were treated like members of the family and fed a delicious Christmas dinner. The celebratory meal typically consisted of rabbit, beef or chicken served with cabbage and rice to mark the special occasion – with up to 12 of the lucky pooches dining with the family.

Sadly after the Queen passed away in 2022, her two surviving corgis went to live with Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson. Sadly their absence this year, due to the ongoing alleged spy controversy with Chinese diplomat Yang Tengbo, meant that the dogs weren’t in attendance at Sandringham for the usual Christmas celebration.

Instead, Sarah and Andrew spent Christmas at Royal Lodge in Windsor where they privately celebrated the festive season amid the fallout of several scandals.

Prince Andrew famously stepped back from royal duties in 2019, following his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. However, he did continue to make a number of small appearances in recent years at big royal events such as the annual Christmas Day church service at St. Mary Magdalene Church, and at the Queen’s funeral.