When Prince Harry and his wife Meghan stepped down as senior working members of the royal family, no one would have predicted what their life would look like now.
After announcing in January 2020 they were leaving their royal lives and home, Frogmore Cottage, behind, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex set up home in California.
Now, five years on, let’s take a look at how they will celebrate Christmas in Montecito.
The couple celebrated their first Christmas as a family of four in Montecito in 2021. (The Duke and Duchess of Sussex)
First, some background.
Harry and Meghan’s decision to flee the royal family came less than two years after they married in a lavish ceremony at St George’s Chapel, inside Windsor Castle, on May 19, 2018.
At the time, Meghan had seemingly been warmly embraced by the British public and her husband’s family.
In fact, she received her first invitation to spend Christmas with the royals at Sandringham in 2017 – just over a month after they announced their engagement.
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Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, arrive at the Christmas Day church service in 2019. (Getty)
They even reportedly stayed with William and Catherine at their home, Anmer House
The following year, the couple, by then married and expecting their first child, returned to Sandringham for Christmas.
But few would have realised when we saw them on the annual walk to church that it would be the last time such a scene would play out.
The couple elected to skip Christmas with the royals in 2019, instead bunkering down in Canada, where they had been living since that November with their infant son Archie.
Just weeks later, on January 18, 2020, came the sensational announcement they were stepping down from their royal duties. They left the UK for Canada, before heading to the US just as the COVID pandemic took hold.
They were living in the US when they welcomed their daughter Lilibet, whom they call Lili, in June 2021.
Californian Christmas
This year will mark Harry and Meghan’s sixth Christmas in Montecito.
There is no doubt it is vastly different to what either of them experienced growing up.
While Harry spent almost all of his 30-plus Christmases with the royal family at the monarch’s Sandringham estate, Meghan’s Christmases were mostly spent in LA, where she grew up.
Meghan will no doubt be looking forward to creating a picture perfect Christmas in Montecito this year. (JAKE ROSENBERG/NETFLIX)
Montecito is a small celebrity-dense enclave that forms part of the Santa Barbara township, and is located just one hour and 40 minutes north of LA.
The couple reportedly chose the area because of its sense of community but also because of its popularity among celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, who lives just down the street from them.
Other stars to call the area home are Gwyneth Paltrow and Kevin Costner, while some of Meghan’s close friends who have appeared on her lifestyle show also live there.
While it is winter in the US, California has a much more tepid climate than England, so while the nights might be cool, the days will be much warmer.
The couple lives close to the beach, where both Harry and Archie have learned to surf, so they may even squeeze in a beach walk or surf over the festive season.
They are likely to fit in a walk or surf over the festive season. (Instagram/meghan)
The sprawling mansion boasts nine bedrooms, 16 bathrooms, a chef’s kitchen, a home office, wine cellar with tasting area, home theatre, gym and arcade room.
Outside there is an outdoor terrace with built-in barbecue, pool, tennis court, playground, chicken coop and extensive gardens, including all important vegetable patch and beehive.
There is also a separate guest house on the property, as well as a creek.
Decorating the tree
Judging from past revelations, both in Harry’s book Spare and their docuseries Harry & Meghan, they will likely have at least one large fresh Christmas tree inside their sprawling mansion.
Meghan has spoken of her love of Christmas trees. (Harry & Meghan)
During their first Christmas away from the royals, which they spent in Canada, the couple bought a large tree which Meghan was seen decorating in a clip from the series.
By the following year, they were safely ensconced in Montecito, and Prince Harry recalled tree shopping in his book Spare.
“We took Archie to find a Christmas tree [at a] pop-up lot in Santa Barbara,” he said.
“We bought one of the biggest spruces they had… set it up in the living room. [It was] magnificent.
“We stood back, admiring, counting our blessings. New home, Healthy boy.”
The Christmas tree the couple put up in their home in Montecito in 2021. (Harry & Meghan)
During Meghan’s special With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration, she said she loved having a freshly-cut tree, which she decorates by stringing lights before strategically adding ornaments to “find their light”.
“I just love having a tree up,” she told viewers.
“There’s just something about it that in one area in your house you are able to really encapsulate your family story and really feel the passage of time and the different chapters of your life through the ornaments.”
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Among the baubles she is likely to add to the tree is an ornament featuring an image of Guy, her rescue dog who died in January 2025.
Sweet surprise
The couple’s two children are likely to be counting down the days until December 25 with the help of a homemade advent calendar, which she made for each of her children during her Christmas special.
Archie and Lili have their own advent calenders. (Netflix/With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration)
She made sure she included little notes to her children as well treats such as chocolates.
Festive fare
Meghan will likely be busy in the kitchen cooking up a range of festive treats.
Judging by a recent video for her lifestyle brand As ever, she’ll have a large pot of her Mulling Spice Kit brewing, which can be used to make either a non-alcoholic tea, hot toddy or even a spiced cider.
She will also likely offer guests a selection of Christmas-inspired sweet snacks, including something she calls Reindeer Chow, a Holiday Cinnamon Star, Baked Pears and Watercolour Sugar Cookies.
Meghan, an avid cook, will almost certainly stir up some Christmas treats. (Instagram/aseverofficial)
The Sussex children will likely leave out a plate of cookies for Santa. (Netflix/With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration)
Savoury snacks will likely include a platter of Crudités shaped into a wreath or some mini quiches made with eggs from her chickens.
Christmas traditions
Meghan told Marie Claire in 2024 that she and Harry were all about making and keeping traditions during the holiday season.
She said this included leaving out carrots for Santa’s reindeer come Christmas Eve.
Her Christmas special showed her leaving a cup on which was a note for Santa. It appeared to contain milk and was signed “Archie and Lili”.
Meghan also revealed many of their Christmas traditions centre around food, and she liked to cook meals for her kids using “great recipes that they end up connecting to a formative memory”.
A note to Santa from Archie and Lili was seen on a cup in Meghan’s Christmas special. (Netflix)
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During With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration, the duchess also revealed another food-related tradition – a Christmas Eve dinner of gumbo, a spicy stew that is popular in the USA’s southern states.
“My mum has been making gumbo for Christmas Eve for years now,” Meghan said.
“It’s a once-a-year thing that she does.”
Meghan said her mother’s family was from Tennessee, which is where she got her taste for “soul food”.
Prince Harry will enjoy a bowl of his mother-in-law’s gumbo on Christmas Eve. (Netflix/With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration)
“I know there’s different versions of gumbo,” she said, before revealing theirs is less spicy to cater for Prince Harry’s tastes.
Christmas crackers
Christmas crackers, also known as bon bons, are not common in the US, but are one of the traditions Meghan has embraced from her short time in the UK.
During her Christmas special, Meghan said she first came across the crackers when living in the UK.
“Typically, people cross arms and do it. So you’re round the table and they all pull at the same time… It actually does feel really connective and sweet.”
Meghan became familiar with Christmas crackers while living in the UK. (Jake Rosenberg/Netflix)
Meghan then demonstrated how to make crackers to share with family and friends on Christmas Day, labelling each one and adding notes and personalised gifts inside.
There was just one problem – the contents of the crackers are meant to go to whoever wins the tug of war, not the person whose name is on the cracker.
Opening presents
It’s thought the family will open at least some gifts on Christmas Eve.
In his autobiography Spare, Prince Harry spoke about the royal family’s tradition of opening gifts on December 24, and not Christmas Day, in a nod to their German ancestry, and revealed he and Meghan continued this after they left the royal family.
Meghan is expected to wrap her Christmas gifts with care. (Netflix/With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration)
“It was Christmas Eve. We watched Archie running around the tree and we opened presents, keeping to the Windsor family tradition,” he wrote.
With their children now older, it may be that Harry and Meghan combine the two traditions, opening some gifts on Christmas Eve and leaving others, including those from Santa, for the next day.
Either way, they are expected to be beautifully wrapped, considering Meghan at one time worked as a gift-wrapper and espoused the benefits on both her Netflix specials.
Small gathering
With Harry so far away from his family in Britain, and Meghan estranged from her father and his children from an earlier marriage, Christmas Day itself is expected to be a fairly small gathering, consisting of just Harry and Meghan, their two children, and her mother Doria Ragland.
Another possible inclusion is Meghan’s niece, Ashleige Hale, the daughter of Meghan’s estranged half-sister Samantha Markle and granddaughter of Meghan’s estranged father Thomas Markle, who raised her from when she was two.
The two became close around 2007 but fell out after Meghan did not invite her to the royal wedding – something she blamed on Buckingham Palace’s advice that inviting her niece and no other family members would not be a good look.
They later reconciled, with Hale taking part in the Harry & Meghan docuseries. A photograph of her at their home with a Christmas tree in the background during their first Christmas in Montecito was also included in the series.
It is possible that with so few family members to celebrate with, they may open their home up to some of the friends they have made in Montecito, or invite some of Meghan’s LA pals to join them.
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