Prince William and Kate to spend Christmas with the Middletons

Prince William poses for pictures with his wife, Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, as they leave the King Edward VII hospital in London on Dec. 6, 2012. / LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images

Prince William will be spending Christmas with his pregnant wife, Kate, and his in-laws in the southern England village of Bucklebury, royal officials said over the weekend.

That means a family Christmas for the Duchess of Cambridge, who was recently hospitalized in London after suffering from severe morning sickness.

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Prince William and Kate

A statement from St. James' Palace, William's official residence, said Saturday that the prince and Kate, both 30, would celebrate the holiday "privately with the Middleton family."

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Kate, Duchess of Cambridge

A recent article penned by Kate's sister, Pippa Middleton, gave some insight into what a Bucklebury holiday might look like for the royal pair.

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Christmas at the palace

"The Middletons' Christmas should be blissfully calm. We're good at keeping each other's spirits up," Pippa wrote in the most recent edition of Britain's Spectator magazine. She added that her father, Michael, liked to surprise the family with bizarre costumes.

"He buys a new costume each year and typically gets a bit carried away - a couple of Christmases ago, he appeared in an inflatable sumo outfit," she wrote.

British royals traditionally spend the holidays at Sandringham, a vast estate in eastern England, and a spokesman for William said that the royal couple would pay a visit at some point over the festive season. He noted that William's absence from Sandringham had been approved by his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, and her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because palace rules forbid his identification in the press.