Prince Harry and Meghan’s California-fied Christmas Card Apparently Confused the Palace

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 2021 Christmas card is still causing a stir. In addition to being the world’s first official glimpse of baby Lilibet Diana since her birth in June, the card offered a rare glimpse of Archie in toddlerhood, and exuded some really laid-back, barefoot, denim-clad California vibes to match the couple’s new life in the U.S. But apparently, some in the Palace want to harsh those vibes, expressing confusion over the couple’s card. 

According to Express UK, an unnamed royal insider spoke with commentator Neil Sean (as Sean recounted on his YouTube channel) and claimed that other senior royals were “confused” by the “Californian” theme of the card. And before you assume that’s just royal-speak for “Bare feet in public! Good heavens!,” the source did offer some more insight. 

First, the other royals were apparently weirded out by the use of “Happy Holidays” on the card, instead of the more traditionally royal “Merry Christmas.” Which is silly, because it should be obvious that Harry and Meghan are foot soldiers in the War on Christmas. The insider also told Sean that the small, Abercrombie-ish rip in Harry’s jeans suggested “rebel teenager,” which is apparently a uniquely Californian thing? Do the senior royals know that California is, in fact, a state and not some kind of religious cult into which Harry and Meghan have been indoctrinated?

Apparently not, because, per Sean, the Queen holds Christmas is great affection and the choice of different terminology on the card may have been seen as disrespectful. He added, “I'm told this phrase Happy Holidays is very much a Californian slang."

I mean, it’s not. But OK. To be honest, this criticism is much nicer than what we expected, which was a commentary on Harry’s insistence on going barefoot whenever possible. But feet remarks were apparently left on the table, which means Harry is free to walk shoeless another day.