The season for merriment, joy (and a touch of mischief...) How five-year-old Prince Louis became the heart-melting spirit of Christmas, as these pictures and videos show
For all the carols and the tinsel, the past few days have been seasonal hard work for the senior royals.
From the Princess of Wales’s charity visits to the King’s Christmas message, the Windsors have been very much on show.
So it was down to five-year-old Prince Louis to add a note of spontaneity to the proceedings – putting a smile on even the most hardened faces.
He was as good as gold on Christmas Day.
But a few days earlier, while his mother, brother and sister neatly folded clothes at the Maidenhead baby bank, Louis lobbed them into the middle of the table!
Then, at his mother’s Westminster Abbey carol service, he managed to look almost angelic before, in a split second, leaning over and blowing sister Charlotte’s candle out. The video went viral.
Louis adds a note of fun and mischief in this sometimes too-serious world – as these sweet pictures and videos show.
Christmas 2023
Prince Louis saying ‘Mama’ as a letter from Santa is read out in Westminster Abbey
Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis blowing out his candle and Catherine, Princess of Wales during the Royal Carols – Together At Christmas service at Westminster Abbey
It seems that butter wouldn’t melt as Prince Louis stands by sister Charlotte at their mother’s Together At Christmas service, at Westminster Abbey
But everything changes when Princess Charlotte finds her candle blown out by her cheeky sibling
A giant nutcracker soldier shows Louis how to stand still!
Prince Louis arrived at church on Christmas Day laughing, smiling and holding hands with Mia Tindall – showing a real closeness between the two families. Louis was wearing ‘black watch’ tartan trousers which could have been the same ones Prince George wore with the late Queen, his grandfather, King Charles III and his father in the Throne room in 2020.
Prince Louis seems captivated by big toy gorilla at the baby bank in Maidenhead. This followed the launch of an initiative at the end of November by The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood to support families with young children in the lead up to Christmas
Prince Louis helping his mother at the local Baby bank in December 2023
The Coronation, May 2023
Catherine, Princess of Wales is dressed as formally as it is possible to be. But Prince Louis still manages to make her laugh on the balcony at the Coronation
Trooping the Colour, June 2023
One moment Prince Louis is saluting from the balcony
The next, he gets responds to the roar of the jets in the RAF fly-past
Charlotte watches her expressive little brother on Horse Guards Parade at Trooping the Colour
Platinum Parade, June 2022
No one will forget the the Platinum Parade where Louis was a photographer’s dream of facial expressions and smiles.
His parents coped brilliantly under the circumstances.
One touching moment came when William asked his father – still Prince of Wales at that point – if Louis could sit on his lap.
The request was met with a definite ‘of course’ from Charles. Louis ran to his grandfather, who bounced him on his knee and won a whole new audience from parents with young children.
A moment of spontaneous affection between mother and son – Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Louis at the Platinum Pageant on The Mall in June 2022
Louis seems to be enjoying himself at the pageant
A rare – and touching – picture of Prince Charles in grandfather mode with happy Louis