Prince George and Princess Charlotte Wow the Crowds at Christmas Church Service – UPDATED

As anticipated, Princess Charlotte and Prince George made their debut for the traditional Christmas Day walk to church with other members of the Royal Family. 

As if this wasn’t a big enough treat, there was a new photo with the children released Christmas Eve. It was taken by the Duchess and shows Prince William giving Prince Louis a kiss along with Princess Charlotte and Prince George.  

The photograph was shot at the family’s Norfolk home. (More about this after coverage of today’s church engagement.)

Both children held fast to their parents’ hands on their way to the church of St. Mary Magdalene for the 11am service on the grounds of the Sandringham estate.

As I mentioned in the What Kate Wore post, this has to be a daunting experience. It would be for many adults, let alone a four-year-old and six-year-old. Prince William was five years old for his first walk to church. Eagle-eyed royal watchers will also recognize Lord Frederick Windsor, Zara Phillips, and Peter Phillips in this picture.
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Richard Palmer of The Express shared a video of everyone arriving.

The Queen arrives at church on Christmas Day, accompanied by the Duchess of Cornwall, as George and Charlotte walk in with their parents. pic.twitter.com/af2Tzdg0xG

— Richard Palmer (@RoyalReporter) December 25, 2019

Here you see Charlotte peeking out of the church after the service ends.
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The Princess shakes hands with one of the clergymen at the service. 

Here is a hint of a smile.
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There is a cute moment in this video from the Royal Family Channel. At about 17-seconds, you will see the Duchess curtsey as the Queen’s car is leaving; at roughly 19-seconds, Princess Charlotte curtsies as well.

The family starts to make its way over to greet the crowds waiting to see them. 

Another view of the Prince and Princess.

There was quite a crowd. 

More about the day from The Telegraph’s coverage:

But on their way out, the children broke off and got stuck in, already pros at handshaking and exchanging pleasantries at just six and four years old.

Princess Charlotte accepted some roses and inspected a doll – though this was easily overshadowed by the gift of a bright pink inflatable flamingo called Felicity from a well-wisher in a wheel-chair who hugged both children.

Charlotte with the flamingo. 

From The Daily Mail’s story:

The excitable four-year-old princess was this year considered old enough to attend the annual service, alongside her big brother George, six, and stole the show by cheerily waving and greeting the royal fans – before melting hearts as she stopped to hug wheelchair bound Gemma Clark, who had waited all morning to say hello.

Ms Clark, 39, who travelled from Long Sutton in Lincolnshire with her family, gave Charlotte an inflatable flamingo and said she seemed pleased with the gift.

A woman named Jade Garwood was there and shared a video showing the Duchess and Princess.

Year made. The best Christmas ever. Incredible to see them all so close #Sandringham #DuchessofCambridge #DukeofCambridge #PrinceGeorge #PrincessCharlotte pic.twitter.com/cSroIKM7a5

— Jade Garwood? (@dolly_birds85) December 25, 2019

Charlotte gets a hug from her mother. 

This gives you a little perspective on the crowd size.  

Now for our look at what the children wore for their first Christmas Day walk to church. Charlotte was in the Razorbill Coat by Amaia Kids ($168), a classic design in boiled Austrian merino wool, a lightweight but warm material. Double-breasted like her mother’s coat, the green coordinated perfectly with Kate’s accessories. 

The garment features pocket flaps, deep cuffs, heraldic buttons, and a decorative tab and pleat on the back. Charlotte wore this style in burgundy for her first day of nursery school in January 2018. 

Thank you to Gabi on Twitter for quickly pointing out the piece this morning.

The Princess also appeared to be wearing the Lou Dress ($90) by Amaia Kids. It is a traditional dress with a ruffled collar trimmed in coordinating blue ric-rac, elastic cuffs on the sleeves, and buttons on the back. 

In a few photos, you can just see a bit of the white collar at the neckline of Charlotte’s coat. Many thanks to Mallory for her identification of the frock this morning.

It is possible the Princess wore Amaia’s Mary Janes ($57.60) in navy leather. 

Amaia offers navy ribbed tights similar to Charlotte’s, but I don’t believe they are the same as what she is wearing; hers look like they have more ribs. Papouelli has a similar style.

Charlotte’s hair was partially braided and pulled back, accented with a small bow. It is similar to the small hair bow from Amaia Kids we have seen her wear before, but I want to look at other retailers; I’m not convinced it is the one I’ve shown in the lower-left corner of the picture.  

Prince George looked very dapper. 

I’ve not had much time to look for what he was wearing. He is in a classic navy blazer with three patch pockets, notch lapels, metal heraldic buttons, and a back vent. His sweater looks like a traditional cashmere crewneck with ribbing at the neck. The trousers are going to be almost impossible to ID because none of the defining design elements are visible. They could be as simple as a pair of Trotter’s Jacob Trousers in cotton, or they could be a more formal design. The shirt is likely to be equally tough to identify. UPDATED DEC 31: It turns out Prince George wore pieces by Marie Chantal.  He was in the brand’s Brogan Blazer ($368) and Brice Suit Pant ($192).  The suit pant is a flat-front style with a hidden adjustable elastic waist in 100% wool.  The blazer is 100% wool twill.

In addition to the features noted above, the blazer also features pick-stitching and jetted pockets. Below left, a button from the Prince’s blazer and on the right, a button from the Marie Chantal jacket. 

Princess Charlotte has worn Marie Chantal: she was in a scarf by the brand for her first day of nursery school and she also wore the ‘Celina’ Dress ($196) when at a polo match this July.  

For those wondering if a permanent change has been made to long trousers for George and we’ve seen the end of ‘dress shorts’ as I sometimes call them, I think we have probably crossed that line. Below, the Prince wearing shorts for the 2018 christening of Prince Louis, in Warsaw in July 2017, and for Christmas church services in 2016.

Usually, boys are another year or two older before the switch is made but I think Kate and George have made the change. We will still see them for school, that is George’s uniform at this point. But for formal events and occasions (other than weddings), like the photoshoot and taping of the Christmas pudding event (I added two screengrabs below), I think we’ll be seeing long trousers going forward.      

George may well have had on his school shoes, the Pismaonas School Mocassin (€33.10, roughly $36).    

The style features a leather upper with flexible leather insoles and anti-slip rubber soles.

Now for our look at what the children wore in the black and white photo taken by the Duchess. 

Pauline suggests Prince Louis is wearing his “Frog Jumper” by Elfie London, and I think she is correct.  

We first saw this piece when the Prince’s first birthday photos were released in April. He appears to have on the same Peter Pan collared piece we saw at the Queen’s Christmas lunch last week, also like the style seen in previous photos. 

Princess Charlotte was in a dark puffer jacket, top and skirt (or possibly a dress) and tights. I will look for these items tomorrow. With thanks to Leah for her comment, it looks like the navy jacket worn for the Burnham Market Horse Trials in April. UPDATE DEC 31: With an enormous thank you to Kit Fletcher on Twitter, Charlotte’s jacket looks like a Baby Gap style. 

The photo above is from an eBay auction that Kit found. The jacket features multiple pockets, including two zippered pockets with fabric pull tabs on the front chest, elastic at the sleeve hems, hidden front zipper fastening, and an attached hood.  I did find a couple on Poshmark (one here and another one here), but none currently available on eBay. My guess is that this may have been a piece initially worn by Prince George.

Prince George was in his Fast Trek II Fleece Jacket (£25, about $32) by Columbia we first saw in April. It features a full-length front zipper with zippered hand and chest pockets, tonal top-stitching, and a stand collar in the ‘Cypress’ colorway. His shorts appear to be by Mini Boden, the brand’s Dino Toweling Shorts (originally $32, now sold out), a fab find by Georgie’s Mum on Twitter.  

The shorts are a cotton/poly blend with an elastic waist and front pockets. Boden has other terry toweling shorts, but not in this print.

Merry Christmas wishes to all celebrating the day!

UPDATE: The Daily Mail has a story about the woman hugging Charlotte and George.  Evidently Charlotte noticed the pink flamingo named ‘Felicity’ the woman was holding on her way to church. The Mail reports that after church, “…the little princess made a bee-line for Felicity and her proud owner; wheelchair-bound Gemma Clark, 39, who from 15 months of age has suffered from cerebral palsy.”  

More from the story:

‘Felicity was a 39th birthday present from my older sister, Fran, and she goes everywhere with me. She’s like my lucky mascot,’ says Gemma.

‘But Charlotte kept looking at Felicity and I thought: “I wonder if the Princess would like her?” So when she came over with Prince George and their parents after the service, I asked her: “Would you like Felicity?”

‘Her face lit up and she said: “Yes please.” I told Charlotte: “You don’t have to call her Felicity if you don’t want to; you can call her whatever you want.”‘

‘Then both she and George gave me a hug and I was on cloud nine. They were so sweet and it is a moment I will remember for ever as being special. The atmosphere was just awesome.’

VIDEOS:

This is about 3 minutes of arrivals from the Royal Family Channel.

And here is more than four minutes showing events after the service.

This BBC video runs about five minutes.

Prince George and Princess Charlotte meet crowds gathered outside the Sandringham Christmas Day service, as the Royal Family leave the churchhttps://t.co/Vjs8mzAGdj pic.twitter.com/zYXazDwbFD

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) December 25, 2019

LINKAGE:

• Metro’s story and gallery may be seen here; The Daily Mail piece is here; a People story is here; Hello! has an article here; this Telegraph piece offers a firsthand perspective from someone who went to Sandringham.