Heartbreaking news for the Queen and the royal family as Christmas approaches

Every year, at Christmas, the Queen and her family attend the Christmas Day church service in Sandringham. But this year celebrations could look very different for the Royal Family.

The Queen usually invites her entire family, including her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, to spend Christmas at Sandringham House in Norfolk.

However, this year will be different, as under the current restrictions the royals would still be limited to the rule of six.

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And reports have suggested Her Majesty and the rest of the royals will have to miss the annual Christmas service at St Mary Magdalene Church, due to the coronavirus pandemic too.

Hello! has said no concrete plans have been made for the royal family's Christmas just yet, but they will abide by the government's restrictions.

The Queen and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, isolated at Windsor Castle during the national lockdown, with a team of staff who were known as the "HMS Bubble". When restrictions eased in August, they took their usual break in Balmoral before going to Sandringham last month.

The Queen has now returned to Windsor Castle, while Prince Philip is living at Wood Farm on the Norfolk estate.

Meanwhile, it's still unknown as to whether Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will come back to the UK for Christmas with their son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, as they're living in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles - and are unlikely to be able to fly here for Christmas celebrations.

On top of this, people think that the couple will announce they're expecting another baby next year, after they previously revealed they'd like to have another child.

Hayley is a Celebrity Features Editor with more than five years' experience in online and magazines. She currently looks after all things celebrity for Woman, Woman’s Own, Woman’s Weekly, Woman & Home, and Goodto.com. Before joining Future, Hayley spent a year as a TV reporter for Mirror Online and a year and a half as a showbiz and TV reporter for OK! Online - but was forced to write about tech and cars for a year before that, despite knowing nothing about either!.