Duke and Duchess of Cambridge showered in fake snow for festive party for military families

Katy Clifton4 December 2018

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were showered with fake snow as the couple threw open the doors of Kensington Palace for a Christmas party for military families.

William and Kate are welcoming the partners and children whose loved ones from RAF Coningsby or RAF Marham will be serving in Cyprus over the Christmas period.

The Christmas party in London will be a family event featuring stalls where children can decorate stockings or snow globes, make crackers and create Christmas party kits.

There will also a post box so guests can take pictures and send messages to their loved ones in Cyprus.

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge host Christmas party for RAF families

1/26

On Wednesday the Cambridges will fly to RAF Akrotiri on the Mediterranean island state to meet military personnel – including some whose relatives are invited to the royal Christmas party.

They will also meet families living on the base, wider station personnel and the local community.

Kensington Palace said couple wanted to deliver a message of support to deployed personnel and to acknowledge and honour the fact many are away from their families at this time of the year.

During the festive period, there will be 11,000 sailors, soldiers, airmen and marines deployed on operations.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
EPA

Service personnel have been sent on 30 operations in 35 countries across the globe, including Somalia and Kuwait.

William is Honorary Air Commandant of RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire which is home to Typhoon squadrons which deploy to Cyprus and fly operations in support of Op Shader, the UK's contribution to the ongoing campaign against Isis.

They work alongside 31 Squadron, a Tornado GR4 unit based at RAF Marham in Norfolk, which is also involved with the campaign.

RAF Akrotiri is the home of the Cyprus Operations Support Unit which provides joint support to British Forces Cyprus and operations in the region to protect the UK's strategic interests.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in