Markle and Prince Harry will celebrate their first Christmas after engagement with Queen Elizabeth and other members of Britain's royal family, "You can expect to see the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry, and Ms. Markle at Sandringham on Christmas Day," said a Kensington Palace spokesperson.

The Royals normally exchange gifts on Christmas evening and attend a church service at St. Mary Magadalene Church on Christmas Day before enjoying a gala lunch and, sometimes, a walk in the woods. The Queen was forced to miss last year's Christmas Day service because of a "heavy cold." It was the first such work she had missed since she began celebrating Christmas at Sandringham in 1988.Prince Harry and Markle declared their engagement on November 27. They plan to get matrimonial in May 2018 and will reside at Nottingham Cottage in the Kensington Palace. The couple will tie the knot at Windsor Castle in May. 

Markle worked as a freelance calligrapher in order to support herself between early acting jobs. She also took on several contract acting and modelling jobs that included a stint as a "briefcase girl" on the US game show Deal Or No Deal In 2002, Markle appeared in an episode of the daytime soap opera General Hospital. She appeared in Fox's series Fringe as Junior Agent Amy Jessup in the first two episodes of its second season.Markle had some difficulty getting roles early in her career. In 2015, she wrote: "I wasn't black enough for the black roles and I wasn't white enough for the white ones, leaving me somewhere in the middle as the ethnic chameleon who couldn't book a job.