The 12 Biggest Moments from Meghan Markle’s Netflix Holiday Special — Yes, Prince Harry Pops In

Meghan Markle is ending the year with a festive new chapter in her growing lifestyle world. With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration — filmed last holiday season and premiering Dec. 3 — lands after a busy 2025 that included the Duchess of Sussex’s Instagram comeback, the launch of her As ever brand and two seasons of her Netflix series. 

The holiday special pulls back the curtain on the Christmas traditions Meghan, 44, and Prince Harry, 41, are building in Montecito, complete with sentimental nods, new rituals for Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4 — and a surprise moment between the couple.

Here are the biggest moments.

The royal tradition she’s keeping alive in California

The closest the special comes to brushing Meghan’s former royal life is her embrace of Christmas crackers — a festive U.K. staple she first experienced during her holiday seasons in Britain alongside Harry. The royal family is known to use crackers at their Christmas lunch at Sandringham, with the late Queen Elizabeth reportedly loving the corny jokes inside. The royals have special crackers made for them by a company that holds a Royal Warrant, which dates back to 1906.

“Living in the U.K., it’s just such a big part of [ the culture over there],” Meghan says. “Typically, people cross their arms and do it. They sit around the table, and they all pull at the same time…It does feel really connected and sweet. The way that I started to know them was that they would always have a fortune cookie-sized joke or riddle and something sweet [inside].”

As she makes crackers alongside guest — hospitality expert and author Will Guidara — she reveals the trinkets she’s putting in each one: a lavender roller ball for Lilibet (“she likes trying to be a grown-up lady at the moment”), red goodies and tiny burger charms for Archie (“he loves the color red”) and a “little love letter” for Harry.

A surprise for Archie and Lilibet

While Archie and Lilibet don’t appear in the special, they’re clearly at the heart of it. Meghan builds giant advent calendars for the kids, filling each day with handwritten notes like “I love you because you’re so kind” and “I love you because you’re so brave…little findings.” She hopes the ritual sticks: “Hopefully we’ll have these for quite a long time — a tradition has to have a beginning.”

The Christmas Eve dish she learned from mom

Meghan’s mom, Doria Ragland, doesn’t appear in the holiday special — she last made a fleeting cameo in the Season 1 finale — but her presence is felt in one of the most personal moments. Meghan stands at the stove making her mother’s Christmas Eve gumbo, a soul-food recipe rooted in Doria’s Tennessee family. “My mom has been making gumbo for Christmas Eve for years now,” she says. “It’s a once-a-year thing that she does, so we’re going to make some gumbo.”

Cooking alongside Top Chef star Tom Colicchio, Meghan reflects on the dish’s Southern heritage: “My mom’s family is from Tennessee — around Chattanooga. I love soul food. I know there are different versions of gumbo, this is the one I know.”

It may be the most personal window the special offers into Meghan’s own family traditions.

Harry crashes the kitchen

Harry makes a memorable appearance when he pops into the kitchen mid-filming — greeting Meghan with an on-camera kiss before zeroing in on the smell of gumbo. “You must have known I was coming,” he jokes. “Gumbo is one of my favorites — especially her mom’s. But before the fish goes in.”

Meghan laughs, noting that Doria always sets aside a special portion just for him. When Harry tastes Meghan’s spicier version, he exclaims: “I can feel it puncturing through the top of my head!” — before admitting: “I’m not so sure it’s as good as your mom’s, but it’s certainly close.”

Meghan’s stunned reaction says it all: “What?! Oh my gosh. Well, my mom will love you for that. You know what? What a good thing to say for your mother-in-law.”

Harry’s most-hated foods

When chef Tom Colicchio unveils a salad made of beets, black olives, fennel, anchovies and pickled vegetables, Meghan reveals: “If I gave you the top things my husband hates to eat — they’re all in here.” Harry later agrees, telling Colicchio: “That’s like the anti-salad.”

A subtle tribute to Guy

The special includes a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance from Meghan’s beloved beagle Guy, padding through the rented Montecito house. Later, while Meghan decorates the tree, the camera stops on an ornament dedicated to him — a quiet, touching tribute to the rescue dog who’d been by her side since before royal life and died last winter. Meghan revealed his death in early January, not long after filming wrapped, saying she had “cried too many tears to count.”

As she adds lights and ornaments to her tree, Meghan says: “I love having a tree up. There’s just something about it that in one area in your house you’re able to really encapsulate your family story, really feel the passage of time and the different chapters of your life through the ornaments. For me, a tree is part of my memory and love of the holiday season.”

Meghan brings back a nostalgic staple

Meghan revives a childhood favorite — the throwback classic known as “Puppy Chow,” which she’s rebranded for the season as “Reindeer Chow.” As she mixes it, she recalls how her elementary school math teacher, Ms. Linda, used to love it: “I felt so excited that she loved something that I made.”

A peek into Meghan’s inner circle

The special turns more personal as she welcomes longtime friends Lindsay Jill Roth and Kelly McKee Zajfen. “My dear friend, Lindsay — we’ve been friends since we were 17 years old,” Meghan says, later adding of Zajfen: “One of my nearest and dearest — one of my best friends. No celebration is complete without Kel.” 

Wearing matching red satin pajamas — a family tradition of Lindsay’s that Meghan joins “for the love of Linds” — the trio snack, craft and share an easy familiarity that hints at Meghan’s off-camera life. 

Her non-negotiable Christmas morning ritual

In the kitchen, Meghan turns to a tradition she never skips: Christmas morning brunch. As she mixes a cinnamon star and baby quiches, she says, “I love the tradition of a Christmas morning brunch — I do it every year with my family.”

Meghan’s honest P.E. confession

During a candid moment with tennis star Naomi Osaka, Meghan pokes fun at her own athletic abilities as the pair decorate Santa cookie plates and mugs for their kids. “I think it’s important to always try things that we’re not so great at, which I should remind myself when I try to draw or get on a tennis court,” she says. “I’m so painfully bad. No one needs to see it — it’s so bad.”

Laughing, she recalls a childhood report card that couldn’t even grade her: “My mom found an old report card of mine, and on the report card in the physical education part, [it read]: ‘Ability to throw or catch a ball: not applicable.’ They couldn’t even give me a grade!”

A return to her Paper Source roots

Meghan leans fully into one of her oldest skills in a solo gift-wrapping segment, offering a mini masterclass in holiday presentation. She demonstrates how to make wax seals in advance, create decorative outward-folded edges and wrap everything from boxes to stuffed animals to wine bottles — the latter using the Japanese furoshiki technique with a scarf.

The moment doubles as a subtle throwback to her pre-acting days: long before royal life, Meghan worked at the Paper Source store in Beverly Hills (2004–2005), where she taught calligraphy, gift-wrapping and book-binding.

“It was her part-time job as she was going through auditions,” Paper Source CEO Winnie Park previously told PEOPLE. “She would have advised customers on everything from wedding invitations to personalized stationery to gift-wrapping.”

Meghan’s meditative moment

While decorating hand-painted cookies in a solo segment — an activity she calls “such a fun family activity” — Meghan adds that once the kids have gone to bed, it also becomes her “quiet, calming, meditative” ritual.

And amid the whirlwind of the past few years, her next line lands with more weight than she may intend: “These small moments in between are the things that are actually going to create the energy you want…Take care of yourself and you’ll be able to take care of everybody else.”