King Charles and Queen Camilla's 2024 Christmas Card Revealed

King Charles and Queen Camilla's 2024 Christmas Card Revealed https://ift.tt/YEBAjg1

The King and Queen posed close in the portrait by Millie Pilkington

Getty;Handout/Millie Pilkington/Buckingham Palace via Getty

King Charles and Queen Camilla; the royal couple's 2024 Christmas card

King Charles and Queen Camilla are wishing everyone a happy Christmas.

On Dec. 7, Buckingham Palace issued the official Christmas card that the King, 76, and Queen, 77, will be sending to celebrate the holiday this year. The card featured a portrait of the couple taken by photographer Millie Pilkington in the Garden at Buckingham Palace in April 2024.

In the photo, Camilla wears a blue wool crepe dress by her trusted designer Fiona Clare, paired with private jewelry.

Handout/Millie Pilkington/Buckingham Palace via Getty

King Charles and Queen Camilla's 2024 Christmas card

King Charles and Queen Camilla have previously chosen Pilkington's photos to commemorate special occasions. In April, Buckingham Palace issued a new picture of the royal couple taken by the portrait photographer along with the announcement that he was resuming forward-facing duties after the palace announced in February that he was undergoing treatment for cancer. 

Related: Has King Charles Finished Cancer Treatment? Palace Answers Burning Questions About Monarch's Health

The portrait was taken to mark the first anniversary of their coronation in May 2023, and showed the Queen holding her husband's arm as he looked at her with love. The snap was captured in the Buckingham Palace garden on April 10, the day after the royal couple's 19th wedding anniversary.

While that shot marked the first time an image of King Charles and Queen Camilla was credited to Pilkington, they are hardly her first royal subjects.  Kate Middleton and Prince William and tapped Pilkington as their private photographer for their wedding in 2011, and have entrusted her in the years that followed to take the birthday portraits of their children, Prince George, 11 Princess Charlotte, 9,  and Prince Louis, 6. Pilkington also got behind the camera for the sweet pictures of William and his kids that were released for Father's Day in 2023.

The King and Queen led the way as the first British royals to issue an official Christmas picture for the holiday season, closing a year unlike any other. It was announced earlier this year that King Charles and Princess Kate, 42, were each receiving treatment for cancer, leading both to reduce some of their royal duties (the King between February and late April, and Princess Kate for most of the year) to focus on their health. 

Related: Kate Middleton Makes Rare Comment About Her Cancer Journey: 'I Didn't Know' What This Year 'Was Going to Be'

In a candid reflection in November, Prince William, 42, called the year "brutal" and "probably been the hardest in my life." His wife seemingly echoed the sentiment at her Together at Christmas carol service on Dec. 6, saying, "I didn’t know this year was going to be the year that I’ve just had."

"The unplanned," replied performer Paloma Faith, who reportedly broached the topic by asking the princess about her health. 

"The unplanned, exactly," the Princess of Wales repeated. "But I think lots of people this year have had such challenging times."

Aaron Chown - WPA Pool/Getty 

Prince William, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis and Kate Middleton at the Together at Christmas concert at Westminster Abbey on Dec. 6, 2024.

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King Charles and Queen Camilla didn't appear at Princess Kate's Together at Christmas carol service, where they technically would have overshadowed her as the most senior royals in the order of precedence. The Queen is also continuing to recuperate from a chest infection that the palace announced she had on Nov. 5.

However, the Prince and Princess of Wales are expected to celebrate Chrtismas with the King at Sandringham in a few weeks, convening the family and continuing tradition at their private home in the Norfolk countryside. 

Step inside the royals' holiday traditions with PEOPLE’s Special Edition: Christmas at the Palace: A Royal Family Album.