Queen Camilla welcomed seriously ill children to Clarence House this afternoon to help decorate her Christmas tree.
They were also treated to a surprise appearance from Father Christmas.
For 19 years, Camilla, 77, has invited families supported by Helen & Douglas House and Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity to help put up the festive decorations.
The Queen looked exquisite in a midi royal blue velvet dress and dark suede boots as she welcomed her guests. Before the families joined the Queen for lunch, they were treated to a performance by the Band and Bugles of The Rifles.
As Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla became patron of Helen and Douglas House in 2007, and since then, children from the hospice have been invited to decorate her Christmas tree every year.
Helen & Douglas House is a children’s hospice that cares for terminally ill children and their families in Oxfordshire and the surrounding counties. It also provides medical, emotional, and practical support.
Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity provides specialist nurses and support for seriously ill children. Its network of 82 Roald Dahl Nurses operates across the UK, and it provides expert help and support to over 24,000 children and their families every year.
Today marks Camilla’s third appearance in two days after the Queen’s packed schedule yesterday.
The royal attended a surprise Christmas lunch in London hosted by the Royal Voluntary Service, a charity she is a patron of, to promote their Festive Spread campaign.
RVS’s campaign aims to enable volunteers to provide Christmas lunches to people who may be spending the festive season alone, with the charity hosting over 70 Festive Spread events across the country.
Camilla was all smiles during the festive event and even flambed a giant Christmas pudding.
Later in the day, the Queen joined her husband King Charles, in the Music Room at Buckingham Palace to witness an incredible performance by the Military Wives Choirs charity.
The choirs, who were accompanied by musicians from The Band of the Household Cavalry, sang their latest single ‘November Sunday’ – written on behalf of the monarch’s birthday last month – and ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’, conducted by the Military Wives Choirs’ Artistic Director Hilary Davan Wetton.
It comes as the Queen has been slowly making her return to royal life after suffering from the lingering effects of pneumonia for the past month.
