Halloween may only just be behind us, but Mariah Carey wasted no time in declaring 1 November as the first day of Christmas.
Carey, widely regarded as the unofficial queen of Christmas, has been synonymous with the holiday season since the release of her 1994 single “All I Want For Christmas Is You”. The song has since become one of the biggest Christmas tracks of all time.
For years, Carey has made it a tradition to mark the start of Christmas right after Halloween. In previous years, she has smashed pumpkins and transformed from a witch into Santa to celebrate the occasion.
At midnight on 1 November, Carey, who had dressed as Regina George from “Mean Girls” for Halloween, shared a new video. The clip featured an ice-covered bank vault with a clock, indicating that it was 11:59 pm on 31 October.
As soon as the clock struck midnight, the vault door swung open, revealing Carey dressed in red and encased in a block of ice. Accompanied by people dressed as Halloween characters with pumpkin heads and Ghostface masks, the video humorously referenced a meme about Carey hibernating for most of the year and only needing to be “defrosted” for November and December.
Eventually, Carey broke free from the ice and belted out the words, “It’s time,” at her iconic whistle-note pitch, causing the ice to shatter. Snow, Christmas presents, and excited individuals surrounded her as “All I Want For Christmas Is You” played.
When Carey’s Christmas song was released 29 years ago, it didn’t immediately achieve the success it enjoys today. The song reached No 2 in the UK charts, narrowly missing out on the historic Christmas No 1 spot to East 17’s “Stay Another Day”. In its first 18 years, it only charted once in the US, peaking at No 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2000.
However, the song’s prominence in Richard Curtis’s beloved 2003 romantic comedy “Love Actually” and the rise of streaming and Christmas playlists in the 2010s catapulted Carey’s song to immortality.
“All I Want For Christmas Is You” reentered the US charts in 2012, reaching No 21, and has climbed higher every year since. Since 2019, it has topped the Billboard Hot 100 during the Christmas period and claimed the No 1 spot on the UK chart for the first time in 2019.
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Mariah Carey, the unofficial queen of Christmas
In December 2021, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” made pop history by becoming the first and only holiday single to receive the RIAA’s Diamond Award, which recognizes 10 million sales and streaming units in the US.
Underneath Carey’s video, where she announced the arrival of “Mariah season,” fans rejoiced at the return of Carey and the Christmas spirit.
“November 1st should be a public holiday at this point in honor of Mariah’s annual announcement,” one commenter wrote.
“Not only is she the queen of Christmas, but she’s slowly taking over Halloween!” another joked.