How Mariah Carey’s Christmas classic has defied the decades

For 30 years Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You has been the soundtrack to Christmas.

Released as part of the singer’s fourth studio album, Merry Christmas – her first festive-themed collection of songs – the track had modest beginnings, peaking at number two in the UK singles chart and number 12 in the US.

But over time, the song seems to have taken on a life of its own.

This year alone, it has topped the Billboard Hot 100 charts for the sixth year in a row, surpassed two billion streams on Spotify, and has reached 16x Platinum – selling more than 16 million units, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

From the opening chimes of the xylophone to the propulsive beat kicking in at the 50-second mark, what is it about All I Want For Christmas Is You that has kept it a beloved holiday staple for the last three decades?

‘Do something timeless’

Claiming it was the first Christmas song she ever wrote, Carey revealed in a 2019 Amazon documentary that she started writing the hit on a keyboard in her home while the 1946 film It’s A Wonderful Life played in the background.

In a 2023 interview with Good Morning America, Carey said her “goal” was to “do something timeless that didn’t feel like the ’90s,” drawing inspiration from Phil Spector’s 1965 album A Christmas Gift For You.

Walter Afanasieff, the song’s co-writer and co-producer, recalls the creative process slightly differently.

He told Deadline in 2022 that he and Carey wrote the song together in the summer of 1994 at a home the singer was renting.

“I started playing a boogie-woogie, kind of a rock. Mariah chimed in and started singing ‘I don’t want a lot for Christmas,'” he explained.

Afanasieff credited Carey for the lyrics and melodies while he was responsible for “all of the music and the chords”.

Remarkably, the entire song was completed in just 15 minutes.

Nate Sloan, music journalist and co-host of the Switched On Pop podcast, believes the track’s success “resides in its sense of timelessness”.

“Though recorded in the 1990s, it has a sound that would be at home in multiple eras of American popular music,” he told Sky News.

“Few songs since the 1960s have been able to penetrate the annual ‘Christmas canon.’ Carey’s opus, with its throwback sound, is a perfect candidate for lasting appeal.”

But it would take more than 20 years for the song to hit number one in the US (2019) and UK (2020), breaking multiple chart records in the process.

What do the numbers say?

All I Want For Christmas Is You has achieved remarkable success. It is ranked as Billboard’s number one holiday song of all time, has spent 16 weeks at the top of the Hot 100 chart – the most for any holiday song – and 62 of its 70 weeks on the Holiday 100 chart were at number one.

In the UK, Carey’s hit reached number one twice – in 2020 and 2022 – but has never officially been the coveted Christmas number one, which goes to the song with the highest sales or streams in the week of 25th December.

In 1994, East 17’s Stay Another Day claimed the title, and in 2020, LadBaby’s charity single Don’t Stop Me Eatin’ beat it despite Carey’s song climbing the charts faster than ever that year.

Azzedine Fall, director of music at streaming app Deezer, suggested that stiff competition in the 1990s delayed Carey’s chart success.

“In the 90s, Carey’s hits like Hero and Emotions were more dominant, making All I Want For Christmas Is You less central. Over time, however, it became her signature song,” he told Sky News.

“It is much easier to find the song now than it was back then. The development of technology has meant the song has become more exposed.”

Data given to Sky News by enterprise software company, Sprinklr, reveals that mentions of the song peak in the last month of the year with more than 1.3 million global mentions in December for the past four years – topping at 675,824 mentions in 2021.

While it loses out to Wham’s Last Christmas in terms of mentions in the media from 2020-2024, Sprinklr data excludes how songs perform on streaming platforms.

On Spotify, Carey reigns supreme with two billion streams compared to Wham’s 1.7 billion.

It also performs better on Apple Music and Amazon Music, according to Songstats, and has been used in 17.6 million videos on TikTok, as opposed to 443,000 for Last Christmas.

What makes it so popular?

“The song just sounds like the holidays,” Gary Trust, managing director of charts and data operations at Billboard, told Sky News.

“It mixes classic Motown with newer production that still feels fresh. It’s a blend of familiar yet updated – that’s always a good recipe for a hit.”

Mr Trust said the concept of the song, being one about longing and love, also makes it relatable.

“Add in its propulsive beat – every line just seems to roll into the next – and it’s easy to see how the song has become so prominent in pop culture every holiday season,” he said.

Comparing the song’s appeal to classics from the 1960s like Bing Crosby’s Winter Wonderland and Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree, Jane Butler, senior lecturer of popular music at Oxford Brookes University, noted that Carey’s song follows a similar recipe.

“Strong female vocals against slightly orchestral piano backgrounds seems to be quite a good formula,” she said.

She added that the song itself is a “really interesting mixture of making you wait”.

“In the introduction, you know something exciting is going to happen, which is what waiting for Christmas feels like. Then, when the song gets going, it’s like ‘this is very exciting’.”

Music journalist Mr Sloan emphasised that the track’s “retro nostalgia” is a driving force behind its enduring success.

“An angelic choir supporting Mariah, jingling sleigh bells, and an old-school song form – combined with Carey’s stunning, effortless vocal technique – make it an instant classic,” he said.

Could it still be popular in the 2050s?

Fast-forward another 30 years – could All I Want For Christmas Is You be crowned Christmas number one in 2054?

Our experts think it is entirely possible.

Mr Fall said that Carey is so deeply associated with Christmas that the song will outlast her.

“Even way after her death, she will be remembered as the singer of a Christmas anthem,” he said.

“In another 20 to 30 years, maybe even 50, again and again it will all be about Mariah Carey and Christmas.”

Carey’s savvy marketing strategies have also helped keep the song relevant.

By performing and re-releasing updated versions of the song – including this year’s 30th-anniversary edition – licensing its use in films like the 2003 romcom Love Actually, and even launching her own line of Christmas decorations, Carey has ensured the track’s lasting legacy.

A 2016 Carpool Karaoke performance of the song for James Corden’s Late Late Show, with a host of celebrity faces including Carey, Adele, Lady Gaga and Elton John, meant it was the perfect clip for people to share on social media.

The video has been watched 55 million times at the time of writing.

“This is what Christmas music is,” Ms Butler added. “Lots of audiences have been exposed to it in exciting settings.

“I think Carey is an extremely astute businesswoman, and she has managed to use that to her advantage.”