Meghan Markle still follows one royal-loved Christmas tradition despite tension with her husband Prince Harry’s family.
The Duchess of Sussex — who stepped down from her royal duties and moved to the United States with her family in 2020 — revealed in the Netflix special “With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration” that she still loves incorporating Christmas crackers into her holiday plans.
According to Historic UK, a Christmas cracker is a cardboard paper tube wrapped in brightly colored paper and twisted at both ends. Inside are two strips of chemically impregnated paper that react with friction, so when two people pull the cracker apart, it makes a loud sound.
Inside the cracker is typically a paper crown, a slip of paper containing a joke or riddle and some kind of small gift or sweet treat.
In one scene during the special, Markle and restaurateur Will Guidara sat down in the craft room of her and Harry’s Montecito, Calif., home to make their own Christmas crackers.
“Living in the UK, it’s just such a big part of [the culture over there],” the former actress, 44, told Guidara. “Typically, people cross their arms and do it. They sit around the table, and they all pull at the same time.”
She’s fond of the tradition because it feels “really connected and sweet.”
For her homemade crackers, Markle added a personal touch for each member of her family.
Harry — who made a brief cameo at the end of the episode and teased his wife for her cooking skills — will get “a little love letter, a chocolate and little hat.”
Their 6-year-old son, Prince Archie, will receive a red cracker that centers on his love of hamburgers.
Their daughter, Princess Lilibet “Lili,” 4, will open hers to find “a lavender roller ball” because she “really likes trying to be a grown-up lady at the moment.”
Markle and Guidara then pulled apart a test cracker, which he “won” by pulling the larger half of the tube that included the goodies.
The royal family has long celebrated the holidays with Christmas crackers, which Markle got to experience during her two Christmases with her in-laws.
However, given that she and Harry, 41, felt unprotected by the institution when facing intense media coverage and public scrutiny, they made the decision to leave the UK.
“Megxit” left a bad taste in the royal family’s mouths, as did the couple’s infamous interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021 followed by Harry’s 2023 tell-all book, “Spare.”
All episodes of “With Love, Meghan” are available to stream on Netflix.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source pagesix.com ’
