Queen Camilla’s son Tom Parker Bowles plans to join the royal family for Christmas for the first time.

In a new interview with The Telegraph, published on Dec. 7, the British food writer and critic, 49, revealed that his mother, 77, expressed her wish for him to spend the holiday with her, husband King Charles and the rest of the royal family at Sandringham this year.

“My mum said, ‘I’d love you to come, I haven’t had Christmas with you for a long time,’ ” Parker Bowles told the outlet.

While he said it’s not completely confirmed yet, he and his family are planning to take part in the Sandringham Christmas gathering. Parker Bowles and his ex-wife, former fashion editor Sara Buys, share two children — Lola, 17, and Frederick, 14.

The four typically spend the holiday together in a much more casual way, Parker Bowles said.

“For the past 15 years, it has been: I go back to my ex-wife’s house, sit in my tracksuit bottoms, go to the pub while the beef’s in, then try to get my children to watch The Wild Geese. Classic,” he shared, adding, “So this would be a bit different.”

Parker Bowles told the outlet he does not know which royal family members will be in attendance for Christmas, but he did have some ideas about the food menu and dress code. “I genuinely know nothing about it,” he said. “But I know there’s turkey and sprouts and church. And I have to bring a suit and a dinner jacket.”

He also noted that the invitation to attend the royal family’s Christmas has always been there, but his mother was particularly keen that he accept this year. “It has been a hell of a two years for them,” Parker Bowles said, referring to the King’s cancer diagnosis and treatment and his mother’s recent bout with pneumonia.

“The older you get, the more conscious you become of mortality, especially with illnesses and the rest of it,” he noted.

As for the Queen’s recent illness, Parker Bowles said she is recovering well, noting that his mother is “tough” and resilient.

“She went back to work before she should have done but she’s fine. She’s tough. She hates that she missed Remembrance Sunday,” he told The Telegraph. “That’s a big day for her. She just gets on with it. She’s always been like that.”

“Sometimes you don’t know where she is and you’ll look at the telly and she’ll be in Ireland,” he continued. “Nothing’s changed [since she became Queen] except she’s now Your Majesty, rather than Your Highness, and she works a lot harder.”

Despite reports last year suggesting otherwise, Parker Bowles confirmed to PEOPLE in an exclusive interview in October that he has not yet joined the royal family for their traditional Christmas gathering in Sandringham.

“I have my own job and the children have school. I haven’t been to Christmas yet for various reasons,” he said at the time.

He went on to share that despite not spending Christmas Day with his mother for some time, Camilla often joins her two children — she is also mother to daughter Laura Lopes — and her ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles for a post-holiday gathering.

“My mother and father are still great friends, and we will go down on Dec. 27 and my mother will sometimes come,” he said, adding, “It is something to work towards. It’s a maturity that is a great thing if — despite a marriage sometimes not working — you can keep it together for the sake of the children and the sake of each other then it’s a very good thing.”