Sir Elton John has several reasons to celebrate this Christmas; not only did he mark the 20th anniversary of his civil ceremony with his husband David Furnish, but his song 'Step Into Christmas' has gone platinum in the US and the UK.
To mark the latter, the singer took to Instagram to share a photo of himself posing with his framed singles inside his Windsor home, Woodside, which had been dressed for Christmas.
"A special Christmas present to me! Step Into Christmas has gone platinum in the US and 4× platinum in the UK. To think a song released over 50 years ago is still part of so many people’s festivities (and even sat in the UK Top 10 again this year!) is very special. Thank you to everyone who keeps stepping into Christmas, year after year!"
The red room, which looked like a winter wonderland, shared a glimpse inside how he plans to mark the festive day with his two sons, Zachary, 15, and Elijah, 12. One fan spotted the mound of presents underneath one of the two Christmas trees in the room. "I’m desperate to know what’s inside those huge boxes by the tree?! Amazing!" they wrote.
Meanwhile, two round tables had been dressed in red tablecloths with festive place settings and crackers, ready for Elton and John to welcome guests for a feast.
The photo came just days after the couple marked a major milestone in their relationship. On December 21, 2005, they became the first couple to be legally recognised as civil partners at Windsor Guildhall, Berkshire. Exactly nine years later, Elton and David got married at their Windsor estate. So their festive celebrations coincide with their anniversary celebrations!
Christmas traditions
The 'Rocket Man' hitmaker previously told Good Housekeeping how he spends the holidays, admitting he loves making traditions with his kids. On Christmas Eve, he joked things get "frantic" with him and David raking up the reindeer food and drinking the hot chocolate, while they get out all the presents for Zachary and Elijah to wake up to.
He added: "I've spent wonderful Christmases holidaying in Barbados, surrounded by friends and colleagues, helpfully rousing them from their beds every morning by playing a disco version of the old 1920s song Baby Face at top volume.
"When it was just me and David, it used to be low-key and grown-up: we’d watch a film on Christmas Eve and have friends over for lunch the next day, or go to Venice, which is wonderful at that time of year.
"Now, it's all about Zachary and his little brother Elijah, although our friend Sandy often visits; she and her late partner Ingrid were the boys' godparents. It's about making your own family traditions, some of which are the same as those I remember as a kid: turkey with all the trimmings, cold cuts and Branston pickle on Boxing Day, paper hats and balloons."
Elton's preparations
Elton embraced some tongue-in-cheek critique from his fans after sharing a glimpse inside his Christmas preparations from his family home, thought to be worth £4.2 million. A video set to the tune of his 1974 festive hit 'Step Into Christmas' showed him opening every drawer in the kitchen, including the oven.
Fans quickly noted the appearance of grime, joking: "Nice to see even Elton's oven needs cleaning before Christmas, my oven glass needs an oven doctor too," and: "I love his house is normal, and his oven door needs a clean inside."
Elton revealed he was "startled" by the response, and replied: "A lot of the response was negative about how dirty my oven was, my oven door, my oven window, and I can assure you that I don't have anything dirty in this house, I've never had anything dirty," he added.
"I'm not a dirty person, so to prove that I don't have anything dirty, I'm going to do something to show you." He went on to give it a scrub while wearing a pair of pink feathered Marigold gloves. "Look, I've got the cleanest oven door in Windsor!" he said.
If you're looking for similar cleaning inspiration as your oven works overtime at Christmas, cleaning content creator and author Laura Mountford shared some of her top cleaning tips with HELLO!. She told us we should try reusable oven liners to catch any spills and grease at the bottom of the oven, and a steamer to blast away the grease.