This year King Charles II broke with tradition and did not give the monarch's Christmas massage from one of their oral residences.
This year, the king broadcast from a church that had been essential in medical breakthroughs, a nod to the cancer treatment he has been undergoing in 2024.
In the Vatican City, Pope also missed a Christmas message urging "all people of all nations" to find courage during this Holy Year "to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions" plaguing the world, from the Middle East to Ukraine, Africa to Asia.