LONDON — King Charles III and Queen Camilla have unveiled this year’s official King Charles Christmas card, representing a warm anniversary portrait of the couple walking arm in arm through the gardens of Rome’s Villa Wolkonsky, the official residence of the British ambassador to Italy, taken during their April state visit. The photograph, taken by royal photographer Chris Jackson on the occasion of their 20th wedding anniversary, was shared by Buckingham Palace as the official royal greeting for this year, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025.
Image is printed on the right-hand side of a white split-back single-fold card with a dark red border and a simple greeting. Broadcasters like ITV News point out that the King and Queen send hundreds of these cards every year to family, diplomats, charities, and organisations across the globe.
Jackson’s portrait, reports People magazine, features the monarch in a blue pinstripe suit standing next to Camilla, who is wearing a pale Anna Valentine coat dress, which she has contrasted with a lily-of-the-valley brooch, highlighting their low-key, elegant look that has defined them as they have moved into more prominent roles.
King Charles Christmas card 2025: an anniversary moment in Rome.
By positioning this year’s card in Rome, the couple have created a symbolic link between their festive message and a significant year in their marriage and reign. The portrait was taken in April at Villa Wolkonsky during a four-day state visit to Italy that overlapped with their 20th wedding anniversary on April 9.
The King Charles Christmas card 2025 is the fourth festive greeting of Charles’s reign, and fits a pattern of selecting images that straddle private milestones alongside duty. As Sky News points out, the card depicts the two arm in arm in the garden, a more informal scene than the 2023 card featured — fronted by their official coronation portrait.
A history of personal milestones.
In 2023, during his first Christmas as king, Charles and Camilla opted for a coronation portrait taken in Buckingham Palace’s Throne Room, featuring the pageantry of the new monarch, according to People.
The 2024 card, taken in the Buckingham Palace Garden by photographer Millie Pilkington at a time when the King’s improving health was being publicly celebrated, marked a softer, more personal mood and is featured on her site under the title King Charles and Queen Camilla’s Christmas Card 2024.
Against that backdrop, the King Charles card 2025 is part of a broader trend unearthed in Town & Country’s survey of royal Christmas cards, in which images increasingly reflect the emotional texture of that royal year.
Why Villa Wolkonsky matters.
Selecting Villa Wolkonsky as the location for this year’s royal Christmas card is another reference to the U.K.’s ties to Italy. The 19th-century villa that now serves as the official residence of Britain’s ambassador in Rome is famed for its gardens, which include sections of the ancient Aqua Claudia aqueduct, making it among the most atmospheric venues of the diplomatic circuit.
The same anniversary portrait, too, has already been posted to the royal family’s official Instagram account, with the couple sharing the card with followers who surely stretch across a breadth of countries — serving as another reminder of how this once private exchange is also very much now a worldwide moment for royal branding and connection.
The King Charles Christmas card 2025 offers Royal fans a meticulously-framed snapshot of a monarch and consort who still choose to ‘present to public view’ their shared life as one centred on husband and wife, on duty, and on a discreetly intimate kind of celebration.
