Straight Outta Missouri
A cosmic Celestial known as Ego visited an untold number of planets to seed them as preparation for his Expansion, during which he would assimilate all life in the cosmos. As part of this process, he needed a second Celestial, which led him to woo and impregnate females on the planets he visited. He unexpectedly fell in love with one such woman, the Earthling Meredith Quill. Fearing she would distract him from his true mission, Ego caused her to develop a fatal brain tumor and then left her to raise the product of their relationship, their son Peter, by herself.
Peter lived with Meredith in Missouri until the night she passed away from the tumor. The eight-year-old boy was subsequently abducted from Earth by aliens. Yondu Udonta, the leader of the Ravagers mercenary band that kidnapped the boy, had been paid by Ego to deliver Peter to him. Yondu reneged on the deal when he discovered the other children he’d retrieved for Ego had been killed (after Ego discovered they were not in fact Celestials and could not help him) and raised Quill as a Ravager instead.
Christmas Memories
During his youth as a member of the Ravagers, Quill attempted to introduce them to some of his favorite Earth traditions. He told Kraglin all about Christmas, got gifts for everyone and the pair even worked on decorating a tree. However, Yondu saw all this and was not pleased. He smashed the tree and told him to trash the gifts.
Later, Yondu secretly opened the gift from Peter. It was a small figurine he placed on the dashboard of the ship, starting his tchotchke collection. Without letting the others know, Yondu then gifted the boy his quad blasters. The pair did not speak about the exchange, but did share a nice moment afterwards.