Prince George, Princess Charlotte's picture-perfect Christmas Day walkabout is thanks to a 'dress rehearsal'

The "bumpy" year is soon going to be over for the British royal family. A major role to sail the family through the crisis situation on Christmas Day church service and walkabout were royal siblings, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. The four-year-old princess stole the show and made a way into peoples' hearts.

Princess Charlotte helped divert the attention from Prince Andrew in the wake of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, according to Daily Mail. Prince William and Kate Middleton's second child garnered positive headlines. She charmed around 2,000 wellwishers outside St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham on Christmas Day.

She accepted flowers, hugged a woman in a wheelchair, carried out a perfect curtsy to her great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II, and shook hands with the vicar; all this with perfect élan. "That was simply a happy bonus and it was a beautiful day," said a source.

However, for the picture-perfect Christmas Day walkabout, it was William who took the two older children for a "dress rehearsal" a few days ahead of the event. It has been reported that William, 37, took George, six and Charlotte, four to the 16th century church before Christmas to familiarise them with its layout and explain about the wellwishers.

The walkabout with the little royals was a hit with the wellwishers and the media as well. However, it was said that Palace officials were concerned that if Prince Andrew were allowed to rub shoulders with the public, there could have been some unpleasant scenes.

It was said that senior courtiers were concerned that Andrew, 59, might be heckled by the crowd if he attended the main church service at 11 am. The Duke of York recently stepped down from public duties because of his connection with Epstein.

The father-of-two attended an earlier private church service along with Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall. Charles and Camilla arrived at Sandringham by helicopter, touching down on a secluded part of the 20,000-acre Norfolk estate at about 9 am on Christmas Eve.

Meanwhile, Prince Philip was also flown in a luxury Sikorsky S-76 helicopter after his brief stint at the King Edward VII Hospital in London for "observation and treatment in relation to a pre-existing condition."

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle missed the queen's pre-Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace. They also didn't attend festivities at Sandringham estate as they celebrated Christmas thousands of miles away in Vancouver Island in Canada.