When the Swedish people ring in the New Year in Sweden, the Swedish Royal Family will be celebrating abroad in Italy and Japan, according to Expressen.
King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia are currently in Japan and will remain there for two weeks, while their eldest child, Crown Princess Victoria, her husband, Prince Daniel and their two children, Princess Estelle and Prince Oscar have travelled to Italy.
To protect their privacy, Margareta Thorgren, the Royal Court’s Director of the Information and Press Department, refused to comment on the exact location of their holiday. She did confirm they would be returning to work on 8 January; however, the calendar on the Royal Family’s website does not show an event for the royals until Thursday, 11 January when the King and Queen have two joint events. “It is private. The whole royal family is taking a holiday until Monday the eighth. Then they are back to work again,” she said.
She also revealed to Expressen, “They take Christmas leave like many others, and celebrate the New Year and Thirteenth Day (known in English as the Epiphany – an official holiday in Sweden) after Christmas privately.”
As Princess Madeleine and Chris O’Neill are expecting their third child in March, it is assumed they have returned home in London for their New Year’s Eve celebrations. They celebrated Christmas in Sweden with the Royal Family. There has been no confirmation as to where Prince Carl Philip, his wife, Princess Sofia and their two sons, Prince Alexander and Prince Gabriel will celebrate.
Last year, the King, Queen and Princess Madeleine and her family spent the beginning of 2017 in the Swiss Alps after their Christmas celebrations were disrupted by Queen Silvia’s hospitalisation on the evening of her birthday (23 December) through Christmas. Princess Madeleine and her family brought in the New Year in the Alps and were joined by her parents, who celebrated in Sweden, a few days later.
