Royal fans have been eagerly awaiting Prince William and Kate Middleton's Christmas card, and on Thursday, December 19, the couple finally released their 2024 photo. Instead of releasing a new photo, as they have done in previous years, the Welsh couple decided to use a sweet family photo that touched on a rather difficult year. However, the choice to use old photos did not give the media and social media haters any new material.

The Prince and Princess of Wales shared the image on Instagram Reel, showing off a card on a table and a twinkling Christmas tree behind it. Reel included a pretend snowflake in front of the card with the caption, “Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas 🎄.”

The photo, taken during the princess's September cancer update video, shows William and Kate sitting in a sunny country field with their arms around their three children. As the video shows the family (including Aura, a cocker spaniel) playing in the woods and on the beach, the princess announces that she has completed chemotherapy.

While the Christmas card depicts a relaxed, happy image of the family enjoying their time together, it also conveys powerful symbolism, as one royal expert noted earlier this fall.

“Much of the Princess's latest video was shot in the woods. But they show happy families with smiling children,” Edward Coram-James, CEO of GoUp, told the Express. 'The Princess of Wales is not out of the woods yet. But she is on her own path. She has a family. And for her, that's okay.”

The decision to use an old image for the card is also tied to another difficult moment this year for the Welsh couple. The couple published a photo of the princess, Prince George, Prince Louis, and Princess Charlotte on Mother's Day, but it was later discovered that there were several editing glitches, including Princess Charlotte's hand and wrist not being aligned.

The princess was forced to issue an apology for the doctored photo, which was published before her cancer diagnosis was made public, but it did nothing to quell the wild rumors surrounding Kate's health at the time. The resulting media storm undoubtedly exacerbated a difficult time for the family's battle with cancer.

The couple's choice to use an existing photo for the card wisely weeds out amateur sleuths who, as Prince William told reporters during his trip to the Earthshot Awards this fall, would find fault with the image and try to bring drama to what was already a “miserable” year for the family.

As for the Welsh family's Christmas plans, on Thursday King Charles missed the annual holiday lunch, opting to stay at a Norfolk country house ahead of the Royal Family Christmas celebration at Sandringham.