Elizabeth Taylor’s Assistant Reveals the Hollywood Icon’s Sweet Christmas Tradition: ‘She Chose Every Gift She Ever Gave’ (Exclusive)
Plus, learn why the iconic star said Christmas wasn't actually her favorite holiday
Elizabeth Taylor was always known for the glamour she brought to the screen, and the style and grace on display in her many classic film performances were equally present in her personal life. Taylor’s longtime assistant, Tim Mendelson, who worked with her from the early ’90s until her passing in 2011, got to witness the star’s elegant way of living firsthand and describes how, rather than being unapproachable like many larger-than-life Hollywood icons, she brought warmth and joy to everything she did.
“Elizabeth’s strength came from her femininity,” Mendelson tells Woman’s World. “She was maternal and empress-like, but she was little girl-like as well. She enjoyed playing, and she held onto that childlike sense of wonder about things.” This sense of wonder extended to Taylor’s approach to gift-giving and celebrating the holidays. Read on for an inside look at how Elizabeth Taylor got into the Christmas spirit.
Elizabeth Taylor’s Christmas gifting secrets: why she only gave luxury
Tim Mendelson developed a close bond with Elizabeth Taylor during their many years of working together, and while the role of Hollywood assistant is often thought of as thankless and impersonal, the opposite was true for Mendelson, who says, “She was the best friend I’ve ever had, and she told me that I was her best friend and how much she relied on me.”
“In the 20 years that I worked for her, with the exception of once or twice when she was in the hospital and I couldn’t talk to her, she chose every gift she ever gave,” says Mendelson. “She had a very big family and a group of close friends and was extremely thoughtful in her gift-giving. She was very grateful for her privilege in being a movie star, and she wanted to be able to share a little bit of that luxury with people.”
Taylor always made sure to put time and effort into choosing gifts—and the results certainly paid off. “With women, she gave a lot of jewelry, cashmere sweaters and handbags, mostly from luxury brands. She liked Hermes and Valentino and for men, we shopped at Zegna and Gucci,” Mendelson says, noting her taste for the finer things in life. “For Christmas, it was hard because there were so many gifts all at once. When she bought a gift for somebody, she wouldn’t just grab things. I don’t think we ever bought somebody a candle or a coffee table book. Those things can be great, but they would never fly with her.”
The surprising holiday Elizabeth Taylor loved more than Christmas
Taylor had an enviable real estate portfolio, and while she was raising her four children in the ’60s, the family often celebrated Christmas at her picturesque Swiss chalet in Gstaad. By the time Mendelson was working with her in the ’90s, her children were grown, and he says, “She would have people over, but there was no real consistency in how she spent the holiday.”
Mendelson shares his memories of Taylor’s Christmas trees: “She had these ornaments from the ’50s and ’60s that she’d always decorate with. In the early ’90s, they looked kind of tired, but now I realize they were actually very cool. They seem fun and retro today, but back then, I thought she had a sad little tree, so I went shopping, and I bought tons of ornaments, and we started having a big tree. I went pretty crazy in the beginning, but then I got busier, and it was harder to do.”
After a few years of giving Taylor’s tree a makeover, Mendelson shifted to organizing yearly tree-trimming parties for the star. He also prepared all of Taylor’s Christmas stockings himself, with valuable input from his boss. “She even thought about her Christmas stockings in terms of the colors and styles that people liked,” he notes. “There always had to be a personal connection, no matter what size the gift was.”
Interestingly, while Taylor enjoyed celebrating Christmas, Mendelson says that Easter and Thanksgiving were actually the holidays she celebrated the most lavishly. As he recalls, “To be honest, once I asked her, ‘Are you even into Christmas?’ And she said, ‘Look, I loved celebrating Christmas back when my kids were young.’” He explains, “She did a lot of Christmases for a lot of years, and it wasn’t necessarily her favorite holiday. But we absolutely had fun with Christmas shopping, even though it was a lot of work.”
How Elizabeth Taylor spread the spirit of giving all year long
Even if Taylor didn’t love Christmas quite as much as other holidays, she still always honored the spirit of the season, and this especially came through in her selfless dedication to charity. In the ’80s, Taylor was one of the first celebrities to speak up about the AIDS epidemic, leading her to establish amfAR and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, two organizations which continue to do powerful work to this day. As Mendelson eloquently puts it, “Her activism really exemplified her giving nature. Throughout her life, from her acting to her charity work, she really was a person who gave of herself in many different ways.”
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