11 Fun Facts About Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ (Including Why Her Co-Writer Didn’t Think It Would Be a Hit!)

Got the lyrics to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” stuck in your head? Same.

As soon as you hear the jingle of bells and the iconic whistles of the pop star’s 1994 Christmas carol, know that the most wonderful time of the year has officially arrived.

You may know every word to the chart-topping tune, but there are plenty of interesting facts you should know about “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which has been certified diamond by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) in 2021 — the first holiday song in music history to do so!

The tune was even inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry in April 2023. And decades after its debut, the Christmas Queen’s hit single continues to break records.

Mariah Carey holds up her diamond award for ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’. Sony Music

Every holiday season, the carol is sleighed Billboard Top 100 chart, but in 2019, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” reached No. 1 during its 25th anniversary. Two years later, the holiday hit earned a No. 1 spot on the BillboardA retrospective of the 100 greatest holiday songs of all time.

It’s clear that Carey’s song is a seasonal staple that many love and is a reflection of the singer’s love for the holidays. “Christmas is really my favorite part of the year,” she told PEOPLE in 2021 while discussing her holiday “do’s and don’ts.”

Mariah Carey reveals the best holiday gift she ever received: ‘I didn’t mean to say it out loud’

The pop icon doesn’t let her record-breaking single stand alone in the Christmas genre. She also released “Fall in Love at Christmas,” her 2021 collaboration with Khalid and Kirk Franklin.

Her holiday events don’t stop there. Carey hosted a Christmas extravaganza with her 2021 holiday special. Mariah’s Christmas: The Magic Continueswhich premiered on Apple TV+ on December 3rd of that year. In 2022, she recorded a performance at Madison Square Garden for a CBS special Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas everyone!featuring Drew Barrymore and Billy Porter.

Celebrating her 30th anniversary Merry Christmas album and with the release of “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” Carey launched the 20-city Christmas Time Tour in November 2024, ending in Brooklyn, NY on December 17.

Cover of Mariah Carey’s single ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’. Legacy recordings

Now let’s go back to the infectious Christmas classic for some super fun facts about “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”

The song broke several Guinness World Records

Guinness judge Michael Empric presents Mariah Carey with her ‘Guinness Book of Records’ award for ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ as her children watch on stage in 2019. Denise Truscello/Getty Images

Jingle jam had an exciting year in 2019, winning three Guinness World Records titles. Carey’s hit holds records in the following categories: highest-charting holiday (Christmas/New Year’s) song on Billboard Hot 100 solo artist, most streamed song on Spotify in 24 hours (female) and most weeks in the UK Top 10 singles chart for a Christmas song.

“All I Want for Christmas Is You” is also the song that gave Carey the 2019 record for most US no. 1 singles by a female artist, and this holiday hit was her 19th at the top of the chart.

And as of May 2024, the song gave Carey another record — the most cumulative weeks in the UK singles chart by a female artist (one song) with 131 weeks.

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The song actually came together pretty quickly

Mariah Carey performs on ‘The Late Late Show with James Corden’ in December 2019. Terence Patrick/CBS via Getty

The Christmas classic was co-written with Carey’s then-writing partner, Walter Afanasieff. Although it was long rumored that the song only took 15 minutes to write, Carey later revealed Parade 2021 if the time frame was a little longer than that.

She explained, “I started writing it on a little DX7 or Casio keyboard that was in this little room in the house I was living in at the time in upstate New York many lifetimes ago. I was just writing down everything I was thinking about. All the things that it reminded me of Christmas, which made me feel festive, and I wanted others to feel the same.”

Although the song was created quite quickly, the recording process took a long time.

“It took us a little bit while we were recording the album because if you’re listening to all those background vocals and all that stuff, you can’t do it in five minutes,” Carey told the outlet. – It is literally impossible unless you have three choirs.

Mariah Carey didn’t want to do the song at first

From left: Monroe Cannon, Mariah Carey and Moroccan Cannon pose for a family photo.

A place for children

Before dropping “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” Carey had only released two albums and thought it was too early in her recording career to release Christmas music. Contrary to her belief that holiday music was something “people did later,” she said during 2021. The Bobby Bones Show interview that she decided to try the song because of her love for Christmas.

The co-writer of the song, Walter Afanasieff, did not think that the song would become the hit that it is today

Mariah Carey performs during Apple TV+’s ‘Mariah’s Christmas: The Magic Continues’. Apple TV+

The singer doubted the song’s success at the time of its release because releasing Christmas music was not as popular for pop artists compared to today. When Billboard asked Afanasieff in 2014 if he thought “All I Want for Christmas Is You” would be the album’s biggest hit, he said, “nope.”

He explained: “Twenty years ago, Christmas music and Christmas albums by artists weren’t the big thing they are today. You didn’t have a lot of Christmas album artists back then; it wasn’t a known science in the world back then, and there wasn’t anyone doing new, big Christmas songs.”

Mariah Carey decorated the studio with Christmas decorations during the recording

Mariah Carey in her 2019 music video for ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ Mariah Carey/Youtube

Since the song was recorded in August 1994, Carey thought it only fitting to give the studio a Christmas feel. In order to get into the holiday mindset and allow the holiday feeling to come through in the song, she took action.

“The studio felt like Christmas,” producer Randy Jackson said in an Amazon Music mini-documentary, Mariah Carey is Christmas: the story “All I want for Christmas is you.” “The temperature was low. There were, like, decorations, there were Christmas trees, there were Christmas candles.”

Mariah Carey’s twins Moroccan and Monroe, 13, lead a performance break at her Christmas show in LA: Watch

Mariah Carey’s favorite lyric in the song is “I won’t even wish for snow”

Moroccan Cannon skiing with mom Mariah Carey in 2018. Mariah Carey/Instagram

“[It’s my favorite line] because I always wish for snow,” Carey said on Amazon Music Mariah Carey it’s Christmas. She added: “I always want it to be, like, a special, festive winter wonderland.”

Since Los Angeles isn’t necessarily the definition of a “winter wonderland,” Carey makes a special trip to Aspen, Colorado every year to get ready for the snow.

The song is forbidden to be played in the bar

The song may be a holiday favorite, but not for everyone!

In October 2021, a bar called Stoneleigh P in Dallas, Texas posted a sign banning the song, stating that it would be skipped if played before December 1st and only allowed to be played once a night after December 1st. The facility — which most likely made it onto Carey’s naughty list that year — went viral for a note on Twitter (now X) and received a swift blow from the singer herself.

“Is this the war on Christmas I heard about,” one user responded in a now-deleted tweet, per Texas Monthlyto which Carey responded with a picture of her The game of war video game campaign — you look ready for battle… in the name of Christmas, of course.

Mariah Carey’s twins are in a music video remake

Monroe Cannon in Mama Mariah Carey’s 2019 music video for ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’. Mariah Carey/YouTube

In honor of the 25th anniversary of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” in 2019, Carey released an updated music video for the holiday classic — with a little guest star. Her twins, Moroccan and Monroe, appeared in the production, which she described in a live Q&A session for the world premiere as “kind of the opposite of the original video.”

The twins — who were just 8 years old in the music video — made another cameo in Carey’s “Fall in Love at Christmas” visual in 2021.

No live instruments were used during the recording

Mariah Carey performs during the 2019 Billboard Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Kevin Winter/Getty

Yes, you read that right! When you listen to the song, it sounds like there’s a live orchestra playing the iconic chords and melodies underneath Carey’s vocals, but according to Afanasieff, the song was never recorded with a band.

“We did other songs during the sessions with the band. But there was never a version [of “All I Want for Christmas Is You”] with the band,” he said Diversity 2019 “I think maybe we tried it, but it just didn’t sound that good. It needed to be brighter, funnier and more of what I thought a Christmas song should be on the radio, so I kept all my synth/sequencer parts, parts computers.”

The lyrics of the song were inspired by Mariah Carey’s humble childhood

Mariah Carey performs her Christmas show at the Toyota Center on November 19, 2024 in Houston.

Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle via Getty

During an interview with Genius in December 2018, Carey recalled how her own childhood Christmas experiences influenced some of the lyrics behind the holiday tune.

“I had to sit and ask myself, ‘What do I really want to write about Christmas?’ And I got into it – said the Grammy winner. “I thought, ‘I’m going to write from the place of that kid who didn’t grow up without money, who always wanted to have the best Christmas. And somehow people I was related to would come and spoil the holiday every year.’ I just want to do the most festive thing I can do, so when I grow up I’m going to make this the best holiday ever.”

there is All I want for Christmas is you movie

Animated version of Mariah Carey in ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’, 2017.

Universal Pictures

It’s true! Directed by Guy Vasilovich, All I want for Christmas is you (2017) Carey voices an animated version of herself. In the film, her younger self (voiced by Breanna Yde) wants to get a puppy for the winter holidays.

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Source: HIS Education