Candles, carols and a guest list that tells its own quiet story. Some royal traditions are centuries old. Others are brand new, and they say a lot about the person who started them. At Westminster Abbey, one of the newest has become one of the most watched moments of the royal Christmas season.
In December 2021, the then-Duchess of Cambridge hosted her first Together at Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey. It is now a fixture, broadcast on ITV every Christmas Eve. The fifth service took place on Dec. 5, 2025, with 1,600 invited guests. In all that time, King Charles and Queen Camilla have attended only once.
How It Began
The first service in 2021 honored people who had supported their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, with performances by Leona Lewis and Ellie Goulding, and Catherine herself at the piano alongside singer Tom Walker. Each year since has had its own theme: early childhood in 2023, kindness and empathy in 2024, and, in 2025, “the power of love and togetherness,” with Katie Melua, Griff and Fisherman’s Friends among the performers.
2022: The One Time the King Came
The exception was the 2022 service, just a few months after the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022. Kensington Palace dedicated the service to her, and the public chose “O Come, All Ye Faithful” as the final carol in her honor. The King and Queen attended, along with members of the extended royal family, and Catherine Zeta-Jones narrated the broadcast.
It was the first Christmas without the late Queen, and the King’s presence carried obvious emotional weight. It has not been repeated since.
The Absences Nobody Has Explained
In 2023, 2024 and 2025, the King and Queen were not at the service. Buckingham Palace has never given an official reason. Royal commentators have offered their own theory: that the King deliberately stays away so as not to upstage the Princess at an event that is so clearly hers. That interpretation remains speculation, and the palace has not commented on it.
The service, meanwhile, has only grown. It is now as much a part of the royal Christmas as the Sandringham walk, and it shows the Princess at her most personal, a side of her that also came through when she spoke about missing Prince George after he left for Eton.
How to Bring the Spirit Home
You do not need Westminster Abbey to borrow the idea. Pick one evening in December, light a few candles and choose three or four carols everyone knows. Invite people who helped your family this year, a neighbor, a teacher, a carer, and thank them out loud. Keep it short and warm. The lesson worth borrowing is that a tradition becomes yours the moment you build it around the people who matter. Family heirlooms carry that same meaning, as the piece of Diana’s that Meghan chose to wear showed.
The Bottom Line
In 2021, Kate started her own Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey. Five services later, King Charles has attended only once, in 2022, when it was dedicated to his late mother.
