Like millions of others, Queen Elizabeth has had to reassess her vacation plans. With COVID-19 cases on the increase in the United Kingdom, the 95-year-old king has decided not to attend Sandringham for the Christmas and New Year's holidays.

The Queen usually stays at her Norfolk estate from late December to just after February 6 (the date she became queen after the death of her father, George VI, nearly 70 years ago), but PEOPLE has confirmed she has decided to stay at Windsor Castle due to an increase in cases caused by the Omicron coronavirus variant. The decision was reached after "careful thought," according to a royal source, and represents the continued "precautionary attitude." Over the Christmas break, she will be visited by various members of her family, according to the source.

However, the Queen's decision means that the popular annual Christmas morning family walk to church will not be held this year. The Queen's first holiday season without her beloved husband, Prince Philip, who died in April, will be especially poignant this year. They had been married for 73 years and were still alive and strong.

Meanwhile, the Queen is spending the second year in a row in Windsor. She and Philip stayed in the nation during the peak of the epidemic last winter, when the UK was advised to stay at home and avoid visiting family. The royal family customarily joins Queen in Sandringham on Christmas Eve, with guests arriving in the early afternoon. The royals open their gifts on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day, and the family is known for walking to church services at the estate's St. Mary's Magdalene Church.

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