Alison Chung, from Sky News Online filed the following report on Christmas Day (Sky News UK can be accessed through Sky News Australia in Australia through Foxtel by cable and video):-
Well-wishers have gathered in their hundreds to greet the Queen and members of the Royal Family as they celebrate Christmas.
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The Queen and the Royal Family attended the morning service at St Mary Magdalene Church on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.
While the Queen made the trip by car accompanied by the Countess of Wessex, other family members took the short walk from the royal estate to the church.
The Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry, the Duke of York and his daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, and the Earl of Wessex made the walk amid the picturesque snow-covered ground.
But Prince William, now engaged to marry Catherine Middleton, was not among the entourage.
He has volunteered to work at RAF Valley where he is stationed on Christmas Day.
Miss Middleton is spending Christmas at home with her immediate family.
…hundreds gather outside church…
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The Princess Royal and her husband were also absent, as were her son Peter Phillips – whose wife Autumn is expecting the Queen's first great-grandchild in the near future – and daughter Zara, who is spending Christmas with her fiance Mike Tindall.
Sky's royal correspondent Paul Harrison said hundreds of people gathered outside the church to watch the royals arrive.
One well-wisher, George from Horncastle in Lincs, told Sky News: "We've been doing it for a year or two, we just like to come down and see the royals.
"We started doing it with my mum but now she's not very well, but I keep coming here with my wife."
In her Christmas message to the nation, the Queen spoke of the importance of community and of people's desire to have a sense of belonging.
She highlighted the importance of sport as a medium that can help build communities and create harmony.