Paul McCartney Hates Taking Down His Christmas Tree Every Year: ‘I Don’t Want This Ever to Come Down!’

Paul McCartney might be one of the richest rock stars, but he still celebrates Christmas like the rest of us. He loves celebrating with his family and has traditions as we do. And, just like most of us, he absolutely hates taking down his Christmas tree at the end of the season.

Paul McCartney hates taking down his Christmas tree

In 2015, Paul answered fans’ questions about how he spends his holiday in a Q&A called You Gave Me The Answer. He revealed he used to chop down his own tree from somewhere on his property, and he loves decorating it.

“I have a real tree,” Paul explained. “I like a real tree! And I like the ones where the needles don’t drop! Because I used to always get them from my own woods, which was great. I would just go out and select a tree, chop it down, bring it in – which felt great – but the needles would go quite quickly and you’d bring them indoors and it’s a warm house.

“And I always like to have them there for quite a long time – at least three weeks. So yeah, we have a real tree, no longer ones that I chop myself though.

“And I very much like decorating the tree, the kids like it and the family like it and one thing I like is we have a few decorations that appear every year. So there are ones that were made by the kids when they were little. Those are very nice, and friends give you them or you buy new ones. I really enjoy all that, it’s magical.”

The only thing that Paul seems to dislike about the holidays is that they’re over way too quickly. He hates taking down his tree. “And I do get time to enjoy it, yes,” he said. “It’s always over too quick though. I always hate that last night, when I’m either going away, or it’s the last night of the tree.

“It’s like – I don’t want this ever to come down! All the lights are shining and it’s beautiful! But, twelfth night, you’ve got to do it. I’m often away – I often go off after Boxing Day for a New Year holiday – but I’m always there for Christmas. I do love the tree and the decorations.”  

Paul is always home for the holidays

Despite his busy schedule, Paul always manages to be home for Christmas. In the 2014 edition of You Gave Me The Answer, Paul said, “I have always tried to be off. We always kind of specified that we wanted to be home… Christmas has always been kind of sacrosanct.”

After he decorates the tree, Paul likes watching some of his favorite Christmas movies, including It’s a Wonderful Life, “the one you see the most and it still works after all these years.”

Paul always waits to open presents until Christmas morning. “I suppose it’s just because I have always done that since I was a kid, and I suppose at Christmas you know you do the ‘traditional’ things and carry on with what you’ve always done. So no, I’ve never done Christmas Eve,” Paul explained.

He’s never been the first person in the family to wake up on Christmas morning, either. “No, it’s normally the kids! When I had little kids – who are now big with kids of their own – that would just be, ‘Daddy, Daddy! Mummy, Mummy, Santa’s been! He’s been! He’s been!’

“And we would be like [Imitates snoring] because we would have been up very late trying to leave stuff out for Santa. Amazingly, he had always eaten everything by the morning! He always had about half a mince pie and all of his milk! So, we were up late doing Christmassy things and they were always up the earliest! 

“But it changes, when you don’t have kids and you can lie in more. But yes, it’s normally the kids in the family who wake me!”

Paul McCartney’s favorite Christmas song is ‘The Christmas Song’ by Nat King Cole

The song Paul likes to listen to while he gets ready for the holiday season is “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire).” He specifically enjoys Nat King Cole’s version of the tune.

“I think that’s my favourite,” Paul said. “Nat King Cole’s version is so atmospheric. Not a bad singer, and I used his microphone at Capital Studios in LA for ‘Kisses On The Bottom.’ And the guy came up to me and said, ‘Did you know that this is the microphone that Nat used?’ [Inhales heavily] ‘Ah, so no pressure!’”

When it comes time for the McCartney family to sit down together for a lovely Christmas feast, they always enjoy a vegan/vegetarian meal. When the rock star and his family converted to vegetarianism in the 1970s, their first vegetarian Christmas dinner consisted of a slab of macaroni and cheese.

There weren’t a lot of options for vegetarians back then, but Paul wanted something to carve. “We had to find something to put in the middle of the plate,” Paul told the New York Times. So, Paul’s wife, Linda, started experimenting, and after a couple of years, she had her own cookbook and food company.

Now, the McCartney’s eldest daughter, Mary, has taken on the kitchen to bring some interesting vegan/vegetarian options, including vegan Yorkshire Puddings, a staple in English Sunday Roasts and Christmas dinners. Whatever his daughters cook up, Paul is always the carver.

Then, when they’re all stuffed, they sit and enjoy the rest of the holiday like the rest of us. Still, it must be fascinating to watch a McCartney Christmas.