The royal Christmas just got a whole lot more fun. On Sunday, Prince Louis, 4, made his royal Christmas debut, joining his big brother, Prince George, 9, and big sister, Princess Charlotte, 7, and his parents, Kate Middleton and Prince William, for the royals’ traditional walk to church on Christmas morning for the first time. (Louis appeared to attend last year’s service as well, but the family’s walk to St. Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham was canceled due to COVID-19 precautions.)
While Louis didn’t bring quite the same amount of chaotic energy to his Christmas appearance as he did to his late great grandmother Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant in June, he was still adorably energetic during the walk. At one point, he appeared to pull the Princess of Wales along as if to urge her to move through the meet and greets faster, and in another photo he seems to happily stomp his feet. The little prince doesn’t pull any faces like he did during the Jubilee, but he’s still an adorable ball of unpredictable 4-year-old energy.
In addition to this year marking Louis’s royal Christmas debut, it’s also William and Middleton’s first holiday as the Prince and Princess of Wales. King Charles III gave his eldest son and daughter-in-law the titles in September after the death of Queen Elizabeth. Since becoming king, Charles has kept up many of his mother’s family traditions including hosting Christmas at Sandringham. According to People, the royal family are also keeping other beloved traditions alive including exchanging gag gifts on Christmas Eve and enjoying their holiday meal after church before tuning in to Charles’s first Christmas address.
The new king used his first address to honor his late mother as well as to acknowledge how difficult the holiday season can be for those who have lost loved ones.
“Christmas is a particularly poignant time for all of us who have lost loved ones,” Charles said. “We feel their absence at every familiar turn of the season and remember them in each cherished tradition. In the much-loved carol, ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem,’ we sing of how ‘in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light.’ My mother’s belief in the power of that light was an essential part of her faith in people. And it is one which I share with my whole heart.”
Check out the gallery below to see photos from Prince Louis’s royal Christmas debut alongside his family.