The tradition continues, as it would when you’re talking about Britain and talking about royals.

So no surprise that Prince William,33, and Prince Harry, 31, would spend more than a hour playing soccer in wretchedly windy and wet conditions Thursday, because it’s their annual tradition to play a Christmas Eve soccer match for charity.

In the typically hyperbolic language of the British press, in this case the Express, the princes were “lashed by 40 mph winds and torrential rain,” and got “soaking wet” as they “bravely” played on for 90 minutes with friends and staff from granny Queen Elizabeth II’s vast Sandringham estate in Norfolk, where the royal family traditionally spends Christmas.

Hundreds of people watched them so presumably they got soaked, too.

The brothers, who usually play on opposing teams, played on the same team this year, so that represents a break with tradition for these folks. Both brothers are keen fans of soccer (football), rugby, polo, tennis and other sports, so, according to the reporters who were there, they take even charity matches seriously.

The match was played at Castle Rising, an aristocratic country estate near Sandringham and a few miles from Will’s own country home, Anmer Hall, where he and wife Duchess Kate and their two children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, spend most of their time these days.

William drove himself and Harry to the game from Anmer Hall, which Will and Kate received as a gift from the queen after their 2011 marriage.

The young royals will be attending the queen’s traditional Christmas dinner at Sandringham House on Christmas Eve, when they usually exchange wacky and gag gifts. Then they’re expected to join the queen and the rest of the royal family Friday morning for the traditional stroll to Christmas services at a church near Sandringham House.

It’s not clear whether either George or Charlotte (it’s the eight-month-old’s first Christmas) will join them at church, but the traditional media mob will be there to record it if they do.

After church and Christmas brunch, they’ll sit down to watch the queen’s annual Christmas speech, pre-taped at Buckingham Palace and broadcast on Christmas Day.

The monarch’s Christmas speech is tradition, too, dating back to her grandfather George V’s day, and is the only speech she gets to write entirely on her own, without government input.