Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reportedly not spending Christmas with the royal family because of Harry's book drama.

The most wonderful time of the year may not be so wonderful this year when it comes to relationships between members of the Royal Family.

Amidst the ongoing tensions surrounding Prince Harry's forthcoming memoir, Spare (due out January 10, 2023), several media outlets are reporting that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will not be spending Christmas with the Royal Family. (Interestingly, and perhaps unrelatedly, it is the day after Kate Middleton's 41st birthday.)

This Christmas will be the first for the Royal Family without beloved patriarch Queen Elizabeth, who died in September. For Prince Charles, it will be his first Christmas on the throne and will be spent at Sandringham, a long-standing family tradition.

The Sun reports that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have "no plans" to return to the UK, and according to one source, relations between the couple and the rest of the family are seen as "near rock bottom" as the memoir looms. (To be fair, it has been many years since Harry and Meghan spent Christmas at Sandringham, so this is not a shocking notion at all.) The book's unassuming title, "Spare," a reference to the complicated heir and spare relationship between Harry and his brother Prince William, apparently "caught the royal family completely by surprise" when it was released this week.

"Being a 'spare' is still in the back of his mind after all these years, and he clearly feels slighted by it," says Ingrid Sward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine and a longtime royal family expert.

Royal family writer Tom Bower told The Sun that the timing of the book's release was "very calculated."

"The book will either really succeed or fail," he says.

"I imagine King Charles has been warned that retribution would not be pretty. All King Charles can really do is withhold the titles of his grandchildren Archie and Lilibet. Eventually, I suppose he could also take away Harry and Meghan's knighthoods, but that is a rather drastic approach. I don't know what else we could do. If it is as bad as I think it is, then Harry and Meghan have gone completely rogue. The best thing the family can do is sever all ties with them."

Bower notes that "Spare" will be translated into 16 languages and is poised for a global expansion.

"It would do enormous damage to the reputation of royal families around the world," he says.

On the family front, one insider said of the tell-all book, "It could spell the end of whatever relationship Harry wants to build with his family. It's very sad. Everyone is ready for another period of turmoil and frenzy at the mercy of the Sussex family."

It's nice to enjoy some family drama along with eggnog and Christmas pudding.