While the faces of Princess Margaret's grandsons, Samuel and Arthur Chatto, are usually spotted on the Christmas Day walk to church in Sandringham with other royals, there was a new addition on the scene this year.
Eleanor Ekserdjian, Samuel's girlfriend, was seen walking alongside him as they made their way to St Mary Magdalene Church.
© PA Images via Getty ImagesSam was sporting a special gift given by the family from the King last year, the Highgrove scarf, a charcoal and beige merino wool number from Highgrove and The Prince's Foundation sported by members of the royal family on their Christmas Day in 2023.
© Getty ImagesWhile the 28-year-old is fairly private about his personal life, it marks a big step to have his partner accompanying him.
Traditionally, married partners of royals join the family for their annual Christmas Day walkabout. Prince Harry defied convention in 2017 when he was joined by his then-fiancée Meghan Markle prior to their 2018 nuptials.
Who is Eleanor Ekserdjian?
She studied at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 2019 with an MA Fine Art. Sam also attended there, studying History of Art at the University of Edinburgh.
A London gallery that showcased Eleanor's art described her work: "Eleanor Ekserdjian is a multidisciplinary artist, creating installations which combine drawing, film and performance. Her most recent body of work responds through the act of drawing to the highly distinctive visual language and emotive power of silent film. By projecting the film onto paper and drawing from and over it, her physical and emotional responses are made visible through rapid mark-making.
"Through gesture and line she traces the visions, fears and terror of the film’s protagonists. These drawings become lyrical landscapes of anxiety, exploring her emotional response to film and exploiting the unique ability of the medium of drawing to act as a spontaneous record of thought."
Samuel's creative side
In a similar vein to his artistically inclined girlfriend, Sam trained at North Shore Pottery in Latheron, Scotland, and has pottery studio at his West Sussex home where he works and creates pottery.
In 2023 he was accepted onto an apprenticeship with Japanese artist, Yagi Akira, in Kyoto, Japan.
© InstagramSpeaking to the Daily Mail in 2019 about his passion for pottery and ceramics, Sam explained: "I've always had a strong affinity with creating objects, having spent much of my childhood crafting imagined landscapes and sculptural models, which naturally led me to clay during my later years at school."
Sam also completed a six-week yoga teacher training course in India in 2019, calling it an "incredibly eye opening experience".
