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Imagine sitting down at a table on Christmas Day in the mid-90s and all that separates you from Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall is a stuffed turkey and some brussels sprouts. What would the (arguably) most famous superstar couple in the world talk about? What would their children – Elizabeth, James, Georgia and Gabriel – gift their extraordinarily wealthy parents? Would “Jumpin; Jack Flash” be playing in the background? Who does the cooking? The mind boggles.
In a 2014 interview with the Guardian, Hall – who was married to Jagger for 23 years – gave a little insight into how the holiday season played out; the time of year where her children (and Jagger’s former wives and their children) could get together. “I’m close with the mothers. I think family is really, really important. It gives you a good foundation, a lot of strength,” Hall wrote at the time. “It’s really important to me that there is not conflict in the family. We have big Christmas get-togethers; with all the mums and all the children and it’s wonderful. One big blended family.”
Today, we’re speaking with Hall’s 28-year-old daughter Georgia May Jagger who is currently in New York City with her restauranteur boyfriend Louis Levy. A muse for Pandora’s new Holiday campaign – an animated short film with a message of love and unity to bookend a wild year – the model and activist says she has really fond memories of past Christmases in the Jagger household.
“Christmas in our family is a really big deal,” she says, before talking about the utter stress of flying home during the pandemic (her family are very strict on quarantine rules). “We always listen to Louis Prima, that’s always been the music that goes with our Christmases.”
“I think things like Christmas are all still important so that we can kind of still keep an idea of hope,” she continues. “Even though I’m not religious, my hope – or my Christmas dream – would be that we would all be treated equal in the world and that no one would go hungry.”
The answers, and more, to our imaginings are below.
GRAZIA: Pandora’s new campaign celebrates the holiday spirit. Can you recall your favourite Christmas tradition as a child?
GEORGIA MAY JAGGER: My mum [former model Jerry Hall] grew up not having very happy Christmases so it was always her goal for us kids that we would have the best Christmases ever. Christmas in our family is really a big deal – and I think she really takes on the American style. You know what I mean? As far as she is concerned, Christmas starts on December 1st. She’s already asked me if I’ve done my shopping [editor’s note, this interview took place on October 27] and I’m like, ‘okay’!
GRAZIA: What’s Christmas Day like in the Jagger household?
JAGGER: “We always listen to Louis Prima, that’s always been the music that goes with our Christmases. I love doing really old school stuff like building a gingerbread house – my brother and I had a competition one year. He and I also like to cook Christmas lunch together and we’re always trying to improve on it. We get quite obsessed, it’s like a whole thing.
GRAZIA: The campaign plays on the notion of “one lovely day”, a thought so many people probably think about right now given pandemic restrictions and racial inequalities. What is your idea of the perfect day?
JAGGER: It’s just unbelievable what’s happening in the world. I think things like Christmas are all still important so that we can kind of still keep an idea of hope. Even though I’m not religious, my hope – or my Christmas dream – would be that we would all be treated equal in the world and that no one would go hungry.
GRAZIA: What is on your Christmas wish-list this year? And what do you get your family? I feel like I would not know what to get your parents who already have everything!
JAGGER: When I started modelling, I felt like I really needed to get them really special presents and I’d like rack my brain about it. Because of all the wildfires in Los Angeles this year – they were so close to my mum’s house – I decided I would get my parents something different. So I got them both cashmere socks and a jumper and then I planted trees in the Amazon for my dad [Rolling Stones legend Mick Jagger]and then trees for the Californian wildfires for my mum. I think it’s a really safe gift!
“My mum grew up not having very happy Christmases so it was always her goal for us kids that we would have the best Christmases ever.”
GRAZIA: On a regular day, how do you begin your mornings?
JAGGER: I just like open the curtains – I’m quite like a jump-out-of-bed type of person. I don’t snooze along. I have a coffee and I usually just take my three dogs out for a long walk and that’s the way that I start my day. I then check in with everyone. At the moment especially, I feel like every day it’s constantly kind of a thing. I think, ‘Who have I checked in with last?’ and ‘When was the last time I spoke to them?’
GRAZIA: How have you been spending lockdown?
JAGGER: I flew to LA at the beginning of lockdown. [My restauranteur boyfriend] Louis [Levy] decided to close his restaurants right before the government closed them because we just kind of saw it coming. We went to my house in LA and I dyed my white rug purple, it had stains on it. I cooked a lot of things. But you know, it was very difficult because every day I would wake up and watch the news and sort of be constantly panicking. Then we tried to implement this rule where we would have an hour a day of not looking at our phones and that was important too. But I feel very grateful that I was like able to properly quarantine because so many people were not able to do that and still had to go to work. It definitely felt very different to sort of completely slow down and just focus on what was happening in the moment rather than our very busy lives that were constantly moving before.
GRAZIA: What did you cook? I imagine that’s a bit of pressure when your boyfriend is in the hospitality industry!
JAGGER: I made bread quite a few times. I made focaccia, chicken pie, cookies, cakes, flatbreads – I got quite into it! And then a few months in, I just stopped. I was like, ‘Somebody else has to take over.’
GRAZIA: Can you let us in on three of your at-home beauty tricks?
“I always keep spoons in my freezer for when I’m tired. Then I’ll put my moisturiser or my serum on and massage it in under my eyes with the back of the cold spoon.”
JAGGER: It’s not for everyone. But my face is so puffy in the mornings so if I’m going to see anyone or jump on a Zoom call, something cooling is really good. The other thing I love to do is to get stuff from the grocery store to use on my hair and body; avocado oil, walnut oil, honey. I’ll quite often do a honey face mask.
GRAZIA: International travel is restricted at the moment. If Pandora’s gift-box sleigh existed, who would you invite to travel the world with – and where would you go?
JAGGER: My sister and I had a plan to take our little brothers Gabriel and Lucas to Madagascar four years ago. That’s kind of been a dream since we were younger, we wanted to do a brother-sister bonding trip and just see the nature. If I was going to go anywhere, I think it would be there.
GRAZIA:What are your top three travel essentials?
JAGGER: I think a camera… and disinfectant! I always love to have a warm shawl or blanket or something cosy because it kind of reminds me of home. I like to get a great notebook and I’ll bring some water colours or sometimes some knitting – I like a project to do if I’ve got downtime while travelling.
GRAZIA: The campaign talks about unity and the importance of coming together in these testing times. Amid the pandemic and social unrest, what have you learnt about yourself? Do you feel you’ll make different choices on the other side?
JAGGER: Definitely. Having this moment to focus on what is going on in the world and accepting how privileged I am is important.
“Even though it feels that we’ve been sort of like hit in the face with everything that’s going on, for many people this is something that they struggle with every single day. It’s not like something that’s just come along [recently].”
JAGGER: Social injustices and racial injustices have been around forever and it’s just seems ridiculous to me that we still have to be fighting for the same thing that someone like Marsha Hunt (my sister’s mom) and my mom were fighting for when they was my age. That just makes me really sad. So I just think that we can’t stop.
GRAZIA: You really do a good job at spotlighting important issues to your huge following. There’s so much to fight for in this world at the moment – and so many of these issues are greatly concentrated in the United States – how intense it is there at the moment?
JAGGER: Politically, it’s very intense. Obviously we need change. We can’t continue on with Trump as the president. I think that it’s very hard because a lot of people don’t really like to get political. No matter what I say, even if I really believe in it, someone’s going to argue against it. But I’ve kind of gotten to the point now in these last six months where I’m okay with that; if it’s going to convince someone to make a bit of a change in their life and at least vote or show up for what they believe in, I think it’s worth it. As someone that’s in the public eye, you have to let people know how you feel about certain issues. You know, I’m not just going to continue on never talking about anything that I believe in, even if it upsets people and they want me to just be a model on Instagram.’ Women still don’t have equal pay in America and that’s insane. A lot of people believe that they do. So I think it’s a really important time for people who have a voice. I think they actually do need to get it out there. Right?
GRAZIA: You posted this brilliant message on June 6 about keeping the momentum of this moment going. “The promise of America is equality, but this promise is long overdue for people of colour, for women, for the LGBTQ+ community,” you wrote. How do you stay motivated to keep fighting the good fight?
JAGGER: People in my life that have been fighting these issues for a long time definitely give me inspiration to keep going because they never give up. I think that that persistence is what will make a change in the world. It can’t just be like a flash in the pan like an Instagram moment or seem that, because it’s not like that for everyone that suffers inequality in their day-to-day lives.
“I think that it’s kind of important to separate those things and actually sign the petitions, follow through with it, donate, ask people in the Black Lives Matter movement what they need and how you can contribute as an ally. Find inspiration from the people who’ve been out there every single day since before this was national news. That’s what makes me not want to give up.”
