Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Holiday Card Features First New Photo of Archie and Lilibet in Years!

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex included their kids front and center in this year’s holiday card

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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are spreading cheer this holiday season with their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

On Dec. 16, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex unveiled their 2024 holiday card, featuring a new picture of their kids, Archie, 5, and Lilibet, 3. The shot — one of six in the multi-photo greeting — captures the children from behind as they excitedly run toward their parents.

Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet look more grown up than ever in the image, which includes the family’s three dogs. The card show Meghan smiling towards Archie and Harry squatting to greet Lili, confirming his recent comments about her long hair — red, just like her older brother’s.

“On behalf of the office of Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Archewell Productions and Archewell Foundation,” the card’s message said on a deep green background. The montage featured five other shots of Prince Harry, 40, and Meghan, 43, during their trips to Nigeria and Colombia this year. “We wish you a very happy holiday season and a joyful new year.”

Emmanuel Osodi/Anadolu via Getty; Archewell

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

It’s a rare glimpse of the kids, who were last seen when they were briefly shown in the couple’s docuseries Harry & Meghan, which debuted on Netflix in December 2022.

PEOPLE understands that while this card is meant for professional use, the family has sent a separate, private card to their close friends and family, which will not be shared publicly.

Over the summer, a friend told PEOPLE that Harry was eager to keep his children’s lives private to protect them.

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, Princess Lilibet and Prince Archie

“Harry has been reluctant to show his children publicly, not out of a desire to hide them but to protect their privacy and safety from potential threats. He wants them to lead as normal a life as possible without the fear of kidnapping or harm,” the friend said.

“As a dad and husband, Harry is determined to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself,” the friend added, referring to the fate of Harry’s mother, Princess Diana.

This year, the couple continued tradition by including The Archewell Foundation in their season’s greetings. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex established the charity as a vehicle for their philanthropic work in 2020, and have involved Archewell in the release of their holiday card for the last three years.

Prince Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Foundation operates with the motto “Show Up, Do Good,” and their work with the organization took them around the world and through the U.S. this year. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex traveled to Nigeria in May and Colombia in August to further Archewell’s key charitable initiatives, and the organization expanded its U.S. impact with increased programming at home.

This year marked Archewell’s second year of The Welcome Project, which helps recently resettled women build community, and launch of The Parents Network, a support for families dealing with the effects of online harm. Prince Harry and Meghan’s support for those initiatives took them on the road, from Meghan attending Welcome Project dinners in California to Harry promoting the Parents Network to advocate for change at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City.

“It is hugely important for us to meet directly with people, supporting our causes and listening, in order to bring about solutions, support and positive change,” Prince Harry previously told PEOPLE during the trip to Nigeria about the power of direct connection.

“There’s only so much one can do from home and over Zoom, so we look forward to traveling more because the work matters. Whether it’s the Archewell Foundation, Invictus or any of our other causes, there will always be reasons to meet the people at the heart of our work,” he said.

While the Duke and Duchess of Sussex haven’t featured their children in photos chosen for the holiday cards they have shared in recent years, the couple has done so in the past. Prince Archie joined his parents for the first holiday card they issued as a family of three in 2019, and appeared in the illustration of a picture, taken by Meghan’s mom, Doria Ragland, that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex sent in 2020. It depicted them in the backyard of their California home during their first American Christmas season since relocating from the U.K. to Meghan’s home state of California.

In 2021, Prince Harry and Meghan used their holiday card to share the first photo of their daughter, Princess Lilibet, who was born that June. The snap capturing the family of four also confirmed that Prince Archie inherited his dad’s red hair!

Chris Jackson/Getty

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry at the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf, Germany on Sept. 16, 2023.

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“This year, 2021, we welcomed our daughter, Lilibet, to the world. Archie made us a ‘Mama’ and a ‘Papa’, and Lili made us a family,” read the message in part below the photo by Alexi Lubomirski (who took the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’ official engagement portraits in 2017).

In 2022, Prince Harry and Meghan’s holiday card featured a black-and-white photo of them holding hands at the Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope Award Gala in New York City, where they were honored a few weeks previously. There, they received the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope Award for their work in racial justice, mental health and social impact through the Archewell Foundation.

Last year, the couple chose a glam snap of them clapping at the closing ceremony of the 2023 Invictus Games in Düsseldorf, Germany for their season’s greetings.

The virtual greeting, sent via email on behalf of Archewell, said, “We wish you a very happy holiday season. Thanks for all the support in 2023!”

Read the original article on People