The holidays have been here for several weeks now, which means many adults’ lives have been consumed with decorating, meal planning, checking out the 2023 Christmas movie schedule, and shopping. Meanwhile, children around the world have likely been hyper-focused on one thing: hoping that Christmas morning brings their number one gift list item right into their hot, little hands. This is also true of the first heir for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, Archie, who’s now four. And, his mom has revealed that his dream Christmas gift would actually cost thousands of dollars.
What Does Meghan Markle And Prince Harry’s Son Want For Christmas?
That one year I asked for a monkey notwithstanding, I didn’t really have any lofty hopes for my Christmas presents. The same, apparently, cannot be said for young Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. Meghan Markle (who's probably still pretty high from all the “wild” Suits love this year) attended a screening for the short film The After (which is directed by family friend, photographer Misan Harriman), and while moderating the Q&A for the movie (via US Weekly) said that Harriman has served as “inspiration” for Archie’s #1 Christmas ask this year:
The inspiration runs deep. Misan was showing him how to do photography the last time he was with us, and I bought Archie a camera, and he said, ‘But it’s not a Leica like Misan.’ I said, ‘You are not getting a Leica! Not even for Christmas.’
If photography doesn’t happen to be one of your hobbies, you might wonder what the big deal is about Archie getting a Leica. Well, he’s a 4-year-old boy who’s expressed a sincere desire for camera equipment that can easily cost several thousands of dollars. While Markle (who could get $1 million or more for social media posts) might actually be able to make that purchase, I’m at least glad that she didn’t cave, and got him started with something way more reasonably priced.
To clarify, there simply is no “cheap” Leica. Unless you happen to find one in your grandmother’s attic and she says, “Oh, baby, you can just take that. I’ll never use it.” This is a famously expensive and prestigious camera brand. A quick search for “basic Leica camera” brought up a first result that costs $999.95…used. These cameras are so expensive that the search results pretty quickly digress into non-Leica models, as if the internet were saying, “Yeah, she didn’t really mean Leica. Let’s show her some Panasonic and Olympus cameras before she completely loses interest.”
The most expensive one in my search results, hold on to your undies, is $8,995…but only for the body, as there is no lens included. You can get a lens for around $400, or you can spend nearly as much as you did for the camera body. Yay! Hobbies!
As noted by my aforementioned non-pet monkey, sometimes kids like to take a big swing when writing their Christmas lists/leading their parents toward appropriate gift ideas. They say you’ll never get anything if you don’t at least ask, so it’s good that Archie already understands that principle. But, it’s also good that he’s learning early that he’s probably not going to get everything he wants in life right when he wants it.
