QUEEN MISSES CHURCH SERVICE DUE TO COLD

The Queen has missed Sunday church service at her Sandringham estate
as she is "getting over the tail end of a cold", Buckingham Palace
said.


Her Majesty usually visits St Mary Magdalene Church every Sunday while
staying at her home in Norfolk.


She is still expected to attend church on Christmas Day and her
Christmas message was pre-recorded, so it will still go out on
Tuesday.


A spokeswoman said: "We are expecting business as usual next week."


Mary Relph, 78, said that since 1988 she has waited outside the church
whenever the monarch has attended a service there, so as to see the
Queen.


"I don't remember her ever missing it," she said. "I remember her
going around the back once. I am disappointed but I hope she is OK."

The Duke of Edinburgh, 91, walked the few hundred yards from the house
to the churchaccompanied by the Duke of York, the Earl and the
Countess of Wessex and their daughter Lady Louise and Princesses
Beatrice and Eugenie.


The Queen traditionally spends the festive period with her family at
her at her Norfolk estate.
This year the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are planning to spend
Christmas at the Middleton family home.


On Saturday, St James's Palace said the couple will to spend the day
privately in Bucklebury, Berkshire, but they plan to visit Sandringham
at some point over the festive period.
And Prince Harry is currently serving as an Apache pilot in Afghanistan.


The Queen's Christmas Day broadcast to the UK and Commonwealth has
been recorded in 3D for the first time.