King and Queen Consort choose Highland Gathering photo for Christmas card

The King and Queen Consort have chosen a photograph taken at a Highland Gathering for their Christmas card this year. Buckingham Palace on Sunday released the picture selected for the couple’s first Christmas card since Charles became King. The image, taken by award-winning photographer Sam Hussein, shows the royal couple smiling at the Braemar Royal Highland Gathering in September.

It captures the King from a side profile, dressed in a tweed suit with a red, green and beige tie. Meanwhile, the Queen Consort is wearing a green suit and matching hat with a pheasant motif, and pearl earrings.

The photo was taken on September 3 – just days before the Queen’s death on September 8, when King Charles was still the Prince of Wales. During the event, he officially opened a new structure celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee as he joined spectators at The Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park for the annual Highland Games event. His mother was not in attendance due to her declining health.

Charles cut a heather rope to mark the opening of the Queen Elizabeth Platinum Jubilee Archway. Crowds from across the globe joined him and the then Duchess of Cornwall to watch competitors take part in events such as the caber toss, hammer throw and tug-of-war, as well as to celebrate some longstanding Scottish traditions, dance and music. The Queen Consort and the Princess Royal were presented with heather posies by 10-year-old Chloe Guy and 12-year-old Cassie Stewart, who are both members of the Braemar Royal Highland Society’s dancing class, before the Games got under way. She appeared to take a sprig of flowers and put it in her buttonhole, which can be seen in the Christmas card photograph.

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