Harris credits All I Want for Christmas is You’s ever-increasing popularity to Carey’s adept ability to keep up with how people consume music and, in particular, streaming. “Most businesses and public places use platforms like Spotify and Apple to pump out songs,” she says, and during the holiday season they “play the same songs over and over.” Carey has kept All I Want for Christmas is You in the news every year and so it’s “almost always at the top of every playlist” – meaning you hear it everywhere.

An unrecognized reason for its lasting impact

There’s another crucial, often overlooked, part of this festive classic that helps explain its hook on society: the opening. Clocking in at 50 seconds, Carey’s slow and melismatic vocals create not only a sense of tension, but, as Sloan suggests, a sense “that you’re entering a new space.” When the sleigh bells and drums kick in at the end of the intro with a “triplet rhythm,” it sounds “like a galloping horse or sleigh ride… it’s a message that we’re not just going to enter the world of this song, but this seasonal world that’s different from whatever else you’re listening to.” Sonically, All I Want for Christmas is You’s intro kicks off the holiday season for many of us, so it makes sense that the song’s intro features prominently all the Careys”It’s time!” videos.

But most of all, All I Want for Christmas is You resonates with so many because it is a song about hope and optimism at a special time of year. The verses are about everything that Carey doesn’t want because all she wants is a person. For Solomon, “Christmas is also a time of optimism and All I Want for Christmas is You has that in spades. The mood is jubilant and it’s romantically relatable to pretty much everyone who’s ever been in love. The song lives in that moment of hope and the opportunity to have everything you want.”

In 2019, Carey finally got her Christmas wish when the song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. But it was in the hearts of countless listeners long before that. Carey may have failed to brand herself as the Queen of Christmas, but the boundless popularity of All I Want for Christmas is You means she will long reign supreme every Christmas season.

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