Meghan Markle talks celebrating holidays with kids, Archie and Lilibet

As the holidays approach, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are getting excited to celebrate with their two children.

In a new interview with Marie Claire, Meghan Markle shared that now that her two kids, Archie and Lilibet are five and three, respectively, “every year it gets better.”

“I love the holidays,” Markle told Marie Claire.

“At first, I think as a mom with children you’re just enjoying having them there, but they’re not understanding everything that’s happening yet,” Markle said of holidays past. 

“But now we’re at the age where I just can’t wait to see it through their lens every year,” she said of her kids.

Markle opened up about her family’s Thanksgiving plans, saying they are “always pretty low-key. Being close to my mom is great,” she told Marie Claire.

Markle and her royal husband Prince Harry now live in California, after moving out of England in 2020. Doria, Markle’s mom, is also based in California.

“I was thinking about, in the past few years of having Thanksgiving here, like many of us, I think you always make sure there’s room at the table for your friends who don’t have family, which is really key,” she shares. 

Christmas card from Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan.

“This year, 2021, we welcomed our daughter, Lilibet, to the world. Archie made us a ‘Mama’ and a ‘Papa’, and Lili made us a family.” pic.twitter.com/I9czXdASsY

— Duchess Meg (@duchessmegfan) December 23, 2021

As far as their holiday traditions, Markle said she, her husband and her two kids are “always making sure we have something fun to do.”

“Like any other family you spend time having a great meal and then what do you do? Play games, all the same stuff, someone brings a guitar—fun.”

“Every single holiday is a new adventure,” she says, adding that it her and Prince Harry’s priority to make sure Archie and Lilibet experience the “magic” of traditions like “great recipes that they end up connecting to a formative memory” at Thanksgiving and putting out “carrots for the reindeer” at Christmas, Marie Claire reports.

While Markle and Harry don’t often talk about their children publicly, Harry shared a brief tidbit about Archie and Lilibet on his 40th birthday in September.

“The best gift I’ve ever been given is, without doubt, my kids. I enjoy watching them grow every single day and love being their dad,” Harry told People. “I was anxious about 30, I’m excited about 40. Whatever the age, my mission is to continue showing up and doing good in the world.”

In 2023, Harry also revealed that both of his children inherited his red hair while a guest on Stephen Colbert’s late night show.

“I actually really thought in the beginning of my relationship that—should this go the distance and we have kids—there is no way the ginger gene will stand up to my wife’s genes,” he said at the time. “But I was wrong!”