Tour the Royal Residence Where Meghan Markle’s Mother Will Spend Christmas with the Queen

Call her Mother Christmas: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is believed to have invited Doria Ragland, the mother of Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, for the Christmas festivities at Sandringham Estate, a storied royal family residence, which sits on 600 acres in England’s Norfolk. The Queen is one of four monarchs who have continued to celebrate the holiday at Sandringham—King George V once described it as “dear old Sandringham, the place I love better than anywhere else in the world."

The Sandringham Estate’s house is a Jacobethan-style residence that was constructed as a haven for King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra (then the Prince and Princess of Wales) in 1870. The interiors, then, are an exercise in the Edwardian era, with decorative items that include an Asian arms collection from the 1800s and a Dresden Porcelain chandelier, which came from Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm I. The walls are further dressed with commissions from the court’s artists, including Sir Luke Fildes, Edward Hughes, Heinrich von Angeli, and Franz Winterhalter. Elsewhere, the British royal gun collection is also housed in Sandringham.

Indeed, if it sounds a bit stuffy, rest assured that the crown has embraced holiday traditions that ensure holidays spent in the home are laid back, time-honored, and dare we even say thrifty, so first-time attendees such as Ragland are certain to be at ease. Presents are typically unwrapped on Christmas Eve, but the under-the-tree bounty is usually gag gifts, like the “Grow Your Own Girlfriend” present that Prince Harry received back in his playboy days. On Christmas Day, after church at the estate's St. Magdalene parish, there's an afternoon meal of salad with shrimp or lobster followed with a turkey and quotidian side dishes like Brussels sprouts, carrots, and parsnips. Dinner takes on a more relaxed vibe, as guests are encouraged to prepare dishes, pot-luck-style. (Prince Charles has been known to contribute plums.) Another yearly custom includes the footie (erm, soccer) match that the princes have started with the estate’s staff members.

Speaking of the princes, William and Kate, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and Kate’s parents, the Middletons, dwell at Anmer Hall, another residence at the estate when the entire family isn't likely gathered around Sandringham's Christmas tree, which is—what else—a spruce from the estate.

Related: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Reportedly Want to Raise Their Kids Outside of London