In his 82 years, Paul McCartney has received many Christmas gifts. The former Beatle used to receive presents from fans in the mail, and his family has given him meaningful gifts over the years. He said it was difficult to pick just one present that stands out to him as the best, but a gift from his wife stands out to him.
Paul McCartney shared his favorite Christmas present
In the early years of Beatlemania, the band got so overwhelmed by gifts from fans that they had to beg them to stop. After they mentioned they liked Jelly Babies, fans pelted them with the candy onstage and sent them a hoard in the mail. McCartney directly addressed fans and told them to stop.
“Somebody asked us if we still like Jelly Babies,” he said in a 1963 Christmas recording for their fan club. “Well. We used to like them – in fact, we loved them. And we said so in one of the papers, you see. Ever since then, we’ve been getting them in boxes, packets, and crates. Anyway, we’ve gone right off Jelly Babies!”
These days, McCartney receives presents that he likes a bit more. In a Q&A on his website, McCartney said one Christmas present from his wife, Nancy Shevell, meant a lot to him.
“It’s hard to just choose one, but Nancy gave me a beautiful old Telecaster guitar from 1956 which is pretty darn special.”
Paul McCartney shared what he got for Christmas as a child
As a child, McCartney recalled eagerly anticipating Christmas morning.
“I think waking up as a really little kid on Christmas morning, and just seeing the white pillowcase that we used to get,” he said in an interview on his official website, adding, “It was like a stocking but Mum and Dad used to put it in a white pillowcase, and it would be a present, a couple of nuts and a tangerine.”
He said that the presents were small but still very meaningful to him.
“We weren’t well off so it wouldn’t be like kids today with their serious couple-of-hundred-quid presents,” he said. “But yeah, it was just so exciting it was the ‘He’s been! He’s been!’ Just totally buying into this idea that Santa had been in your bedroom and left this white pillowcase. Nuts, tangerine and a present or two. It’s funny though; it’s not so much the value of the presents — though that was good too! — it was just this idea of, ‘He’s been!’”
He shared the holiday traditions he’s implemented for his family
McCartney said that, unsurprisingly, the holiday traditions he has started for his family center around music.
“I have actually started some new traditions,” he said on his website. “When the kids were little, I suddenly thought there wasn’t the ideal Christmas record, in my opinion. There’s some great Christmas records like the Phil Spector one, and Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby on the old standards, but I just wanted an instrumental of all the tunes. So, I ended up recording one for the family in my studio. And Eddie Klein, my engineer at the time, helped me. I now have this album I pull out every year, and it’s a bit of fun for the kids when we’re carving the veggie roast. I’ll stick it on and it means Christmas is here.”
While he thinks it’s a good record, fans shouldn’t expect to ever hear it.
“It’s quite a cute little record actually!” he said. “But it’s just for the family.”
