IT'S TIME: Mariah Carey Defrosted at Midnight and the Holiday Season Is OFFICIALLY Open

Glowgetters — pack it up, Halloween is OUT and the queen is IN. At midnight, November 1, Mariah Carey dropped her annual "It's Time" video and legally opened the holiday season. THE DESK RECOGNIZES NO OTHER AUTHORITY ON THIS MATTER.

THE COLD OPEN WENT PUNK. This year's mini-film starts in a New York City dive bar at 11:58 PM on Halloween — Mariah in a plaid miniskirt and leather jacket, reddish-pink hair, performing "Hermit," a cut from her mid-90s side project Chick with Clarissa Dane. Then the clock strikes twelve: punk cabaret melts into a winter wonderland, Mariah is suddenly the GLITTERING TREE-TOPPER on a giant Christmas tree in a red sequined bodysuit with white fur trim, she hits the whistle tone — "it's time" — and "All I Want for Christmas Is You" takes over the world. Again.

THE SONG THEY SLEPT ON. Written by Carey and Walter Afanasieff in one sitting for 1994's "Merry Christmas" — it landed on the Hot 100 and peaked at... #12. TWELVE, Glowgetters. America heard the greatest Christmas song ever recorded and handed it a participation ribbon.

THE GREATEST GLOW-UP IN CHART HISTORY. Then streaming happened. December 2019 — TWENTY-FIVE YEARS after release — the song hit #1 for the first time. It has gone #1 EVERY December since, and it now owns 22 non-consecutive weeks at #1 — the MOST weeks at #1 of ANY song in Hot 100 history. Not any Christmas song. ANY SONG. It's also the first holiday single to go RIAA Diamond (10 million US units — now 18× Platinum), the first holiday song to a billion Spotify streams (then TWO billion), and it keeps breaking Spotify's single-day record — 24.8 MILLION streams in one day on Christmas Eve 2024, the second-best single day in Spotify history. Period-long glow, baby.

THE UK PLOT TWIST. The song America ignored didn't crack the UK until 2020 — TWENTY-SIX YEARS — and even now it has never taken the Official CHRISTMAS Number 1 (the big one, Christmas week). It does own 49 weeks in the UK Top 10, the most of any Christmas song. The UK owes her a crown.

THE 2023 SCARE. Never forget: Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" — recorded in 1958 — snatched #1 in December 2023, 65 years after release, and ran off with three weeks of Mariah's December. Iconic. Unacceptable. Watch that one every year like a squirrel watching a birdfeeder.

THE DESK'S PREDICTION. Picks, not reporting — the desk plays fantasy chart ball like everybody else: Billboard Holiday 100 — #1 all season, nonstop. Hot 100 — back in the top 10 within two weeks of the video, #1 the chart week of December 19–23... IF Brenda Lee doesn't ambush Santa's sleigh again. Spotify — global #1 by mid-December, and Christmas Eve 2026 is a live threat to its own single-day record. UK Official Christmas #1 — the desk predicts Mariah finally takes the crown, and if she doesn't, the UK stays on notice, baby.

MORGAN'S TAKE: "1994: #12. 2019: #1 forever. That's not a comeback, Glowgetters — that's a PATIENCE strategy. They slept on her for 25 years and now she OWNS December, the charts, and the whole group chat. Do not wish me Happy Holidays until Mariah defrosts. Mariah has defrosted. HAPPY HOLIDAYS, BABY."

THE FINE PRINT. Per Guinness World Records, Billboard, Official Charts (UK), Sony Music and EW reporting (Nov 1, 2026): "All I Want for Christmas Is You," written by Mariah Carey and Walter Afanasieff for the 1994 album "Merry Christmas" (Columbia), peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1995; reached #1 in December 2019, 25 years after release, and has returned to #1 every holiday season since; holds 22 non-consecutive weeks at #1 — the most of any song in Hot 100 history (Guinness); became the first holiday single certified RIAA Diamond on December 3, 2021, reaching 18× Platinum by December 15, 2025; the first holiday song to 1 billion Spotify streams (December 2021) and 2 billion (December 2024); set the all-time Spotify single-day record with 21.27 million streams (December 2022) and logged 24,863,570 streams on December 24, 2024 — the second-highest single-day total in Spotify history. In the UK it first hit #1 in 2020 (26 years after release), has logged 49 weeks in the UK Top 10 (most of any Christmas song) and has never held the Official Christmas Number 1. Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" (1958) reached #1 in December 2023 — a 65-year gap, the longest of any artist topping the Hot 100 — and spent three weeks at #1 that season. Mariah Carey's 2026 "It's Time" video premiered at midnight November 1, 2026, featuring a punk-rock dive-bar cold open (performing "Hermit" from her mid-90s project Chick with Clarissa Dane) before the holiday reveal. All 2026-season chart positions in this piece are the desk's PREDICTIONS, not reporting.

Glowgetters, the group chat is OPEN: team "Mariah owns December and that's the law," team "Brenda Lee is coming AGAIN," or team "give the UK their Christmas #1 already." Come sit with me and put your tree up.

— Morgan ✨