Four generations of the Royal Family are expected to celebrate together as they attend a traditional Christmas Day church service.
The royals traditionally gather at the Queen's Sandringham Estate in Norfolk to enjoy the festivities.
Recent years have seen reduced numbers - last year the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge chose to spend Christmas Day with Kate's family in Berkshire, while Prince Harry was on tour in Afghanistan.
In 2011, Prince Philip was absent from many public appearances after being admitted to hospital for a heart operation.
This year there is expected to be a full complement as well-wishers gather to watch the royals make their way to the service at St Mary Magdalene Church on the estate.
It is possible Prince George will make a public appearance as his parents are expected the join the congregation.
There are unconfirmed reports that grandparents Michael and Carole Middleton could also attend.
Prince Harry is due to join his family after a short trip to Cape Town following his exertions in the Arctic with the charity Walking With the Wounded. It is not known if his girlfriend, Cressida Bonas, will be with him.
It is thought the royal habit of spending Christmas at Sandringham dates to Queen Victoria's reign.
The family traditionally open their presents on Christmas Eve and will enjoy a Norfolk turkey with all the trimmings after today's service.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article