Paul McCartney Surprises Fans with Rare Live Performance of His Holiday Classic ‘Wonderful Christmastime’

Sir Paul McCartney treated his fans to an early Christmas present!

On Saturday, Dec. 14, the music icon, 82, surprised attendees of his concert in Manchester, England, with a rare live performances of his 1979 holiday classic “Wonderful Christmastime” — complete with backing vocals from children who attend the You Should Be Dancing Theatre Academy.

The festive moment at Manchester’s Co-Op Live venue was capped off with a smattering of (faux) snow, as seen in photos shared by McCartney on his Instagram.

“Simply having a Wonderful Christmastime in Manchester! We’ve been travelling around the world and here we are up north again. It’s good to be back! 🎄,” he captioned a series of snowy photos from his performance.

Fans captured videos of the special performance, which they shared online. Additionally the venue posted a clip from the moment on their Instagram, captioned, “Paul McCartney brought us a choir and snow.”

Per the Rolling Stone, McCartney has only performed “Wonderful Christmastime” live around a dozen times over the course of his long career. The last time he performed the song was during a trio of concerts in England in December 2018. Before that, he joined in a rendition of the song alongside Jimmy Fallon and the cast of Sing during a 2016 episode of The Tonight Show.

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His latest performance of the song was part of the kick-off of the England portion of his Got Back Tour. The former Beatle previously played shows in South America, Paris, Madrid and other European locales. Next up, he’ll perform in London on Dec. 18 and Dec. 19.

In 2019, McCartney revealed to BBC Radio 4 that he has a “secret” holiday album that he recorded for his family.

“Years ago, I thought, there’s not very good Christmas records,” he said at the time. “There’s a Phil Spector record I like. But I thought I’d quite like to do something traditional and simple and easy with all the ‘Good King Wenceslas’ and all of that. So, I actually went into my studio over a couple of years and I made one.”

He added, “But it’s just for the family.”