Gift Ideas from Rock Royalty James and Lizzy Jagger

For our 2019 ‘Friends and Family’ issue, we asked eight families—from multigenerational clans to collaborators who lean on each other like kin—to share what they’re giving and asking for this holiday season. Contributing editor Karin Nelson sat down with each group to paint a picture of their relationships and what they’re getting up to this year.

Mick Jagger had his first child, Karis, in 1970, with the actress Marsha Hunt, and he’s been expanding his family ever since. His brood now includes eight children, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren, all of whom gather from all points of the globe for New Year’s on Mustique, where they celebrate with a big beach barbecue. “We’re half-Texan,” notes Elizabeth, or Lizzy, Jagger, the eldest of Mick’s four children with the American model Jerry Hall. If possible, they also try to get together when the Rolling Stones are on tour, which, as Lizzy describes it, is like “a family traveling circus.” Despite all the craziness, the rock legend managed to raise some rather well-adjusted children. “It was important to my parents that we were able to cook and clean and take care of ourselves—that we didn’t turn out too spoiled,” says Lizzy, who, like all of the older children, is also deeply involved in charity work and activism. For the past five years, the model and burgeoning photographer, who recently shot her mother for the cover of Reserved magazine (“I’m bringing her back from retirement,” she deadpans), has been working to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, which eliminates sex discrimination from federal law. Her younger brother James, an actor, is a spokesperson for Project 0, a global initiative focused on protecting the ocean. Lizzy counts childhood trips to Africa and the Himalayas for instilling in them concern for social and environmental issues. “My parents always wanted us to be aware of what’s going on,” she says. “We were never shielded from reality.”