Kate Middleton had been dating Prince William for the better part of five years when she was invited to the royal family’s Christmas at Sandringham by Queen Elizabeth in a precedent-breaking move. (Typically,

Queen Elizabeth II was known to be a stickler for royal traditions, but every once in a while she was willing to bend the rules. That’s exactly what she did in 2006 when she invited Prince William’s girlfriend Kate Middleton to Christmas at Sandringham.

When Kate Middleton celebrated Christmas with the royal family at Sandringham for the first time after marrying into the family in 2011, she admitted she was “worried” about what to get Queen Elizabeth — but her thoughtful,

Every Christmas, the Royal Family gathers at Sandringham, where a strict schedule and long-standing traditions define the celebrations. From quirky gift exchanges to the peculiar "

Yet when William invited Kate to join him that year at Sandringham for the Royal Family's traditional Christmas lunch, she refused. "It was the first time the Queen had extended such an invitation to an unregistered 'girlfriend' but Kate had her own take on that break with tradition: she would go to Sandringham on Christmas Day only when she was engaged and had a ring to prove it.

The Princess of Wales' appearance on Dec. 25 will be especially poignant following her cancer diagnosis earlier in 2024