Beginning in 1963, the Beatles started a holiday tradition of recording Christmas messages for their fans. The recordings were edited and issued on flexi-discs through the Official Beatles Fan Club in London during the 1963 through 1969 holiday seasons. In 1970, the Fan Club compiled all of the previous Christmas messages on a long-playing album.

None of the original recordings has ever been subject to general release though a version of “Christmas Time (Is Here Again)”, an original composition credited Lennon-McCartney-Harrison-Starkey, which appeared in edited form on the 1967 record, eventually gained an official release in 1995, as part of the The Beatles Anthology project.