Thanks to a Goof on the Royal Family’s Website, We Learned That Princess Kate Will Host Her Christmas Carol Concert for the Third Year in a Row

Kate Middleton at her Christmas carol concert — (Image credit: Getty Images)

Oops! The royal family seemingly made a goof on its website this week, prematurely revealing the date of the Princess of Wales’ annual Christmas carol concert, which will apparently return for its third year this year. (Before the accidental reveal, it hadn’t been confirmed that Kate’s “Royal Carols: Together at Christmas” concert would return—but we’re happy to see that it will.)

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On Thursday, Hello reported that the detail seemed to slip through the cracks on the royal family’s website; under upcoming engagements for Prince Richard and Birgitte, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, it was said that the couple “will attend a Carol Service held by The Princess of Wales in Westminster Abbey, London” on December 8.

On the royal family’s website, official engagements of royal family members are published up to eight weeks in advance. December 8, by the way, aligns with the past two dates, and the “concert has been held around the same time for the last two years, an initiative Princess Kate spearheaded to pay tribute to the individuals and organizations across the U.K. who supported their communities during the COVID pandemic,” People reports.

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The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester attended the carol concert last year, so attending this year would make sense. (The Duke of Gloucester is Queen Elizabeth’s first cousin and a full-time working royal alongside his wife. According to People, “the couple resides at Kensington Palace and steps out for events like the Royal Ascot and Trooping the Colour—though you won’t see their three adult children, as they do not carry out royal duties.”)

The inaugural concert was held at Westminster Abbey on December 8, 2021, and was later broadcast on ITV that Christmas Eve. At the event, Kate surprised viewers with her first public piano performance, accompanying Tom Walker on piano as he sang “For Those Who Can’t Be Here” in a pre-recorded performance. People reports that the idea for the duet came from Kate herself, who learned how to play the piano as a child and took “great comfort” in playing music throughout the pandemic.

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“Music was very important to the [then] Duchess during the lockdowns,” a source said at the time. “She also recognizes the powerful way in which music brings people together—especially during difficult times. For these reasons, she was keen to be part of Tom’s performance in this way.”

Though Kate didn’t play the piano at the 2022 show at Westminster Abbey on December 15, the event was brought back “to bring together members of the royal family with charity staff, community volunteers, frontline workers, military personnel, and more” to “celebrate the joy that human connection can bring,” Buckingham Palace said in a release at the time. In addition to husband Prince William, last year Kate was joined by her two eldest children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. (Prince Louis “might have missed the concert for a relatable reason, as the evening event was probably past his bedtime,” People reports.)

The concert was a full-blown royal family affair, as King Charles, Queen Camilla, Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank, Princess Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, Zara and Mike Tindall, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, Lord Frederick Windsor and his wife Sophie Winkleman, and Lady Gabriella Windsor and her husband Tom Kingston all attended; Kate’s parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, and her younger sister Pippa Middleton Matthews also came out to support. “The carol service is dedicated to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and to all those who are sadly no longer with us,” a message written inside the program read. (Her late Majesty died the prior September.) “Her Late Majesty’s strongly held values of duty, compassion, and faith have guided the creation of this service.”

We’ll look forward to seeing what happens this year at the third annual concert, which will likely, as with years in the past, be broadcast on ITV on Christmas Eve.

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.