Mariah Carey, queen of Christmas, announces new holiday spectacular and Christmas song

The queen of Christmas is back with a new holiday spectacular – and a new Christmas song. 

Mariah Carey, who graced the world with "All I Want For Christmas Is You" 27 years ago and last year debuted "Mariah Carey's Magical Christmas Special," will unveil “Mariah’s Christmas: The Magic Continues" on Apple TV+ in December, the streaming service announced Tuesday. 

The special will mark her first and only performance of her new holiday single, "Fall in Love at Christmas," featuring Khalid and Kirk Franklin.

The singer got an early start on the holiday season, announcing Monday that "it's time" to get into the holiday spirit with her iconic Christmas song.

Call her the Punxsutawney Phil of the holiday season: Carey signified that Halloween has ended and it's time to begin the holiday season. Shortly after midnight Monday, Carey posted a video to social media in which she walks out of her front door wielding a candy cane-striped baseball bat as a clock chimes. Three pumpkins outside are carved to read "IT'S NOT TIME," but the pop icon smashes the middle one as her 1994 Christmas classic begins playing. 

"It's time," she sing-songs, holding up Christmas ornaments while showing off a sparkly red Santa-inspired getup complete with white fur trim and a black belt with a gold buckle. 

Other than kicking off the holidays early, Carey appeared to be teasing more presents to come: "11/5" was marked on one gift, which could hint at something new coming Friday. But as a friendly reminder, there are more holidays to go before we can really start thinking about hanging stockings or waiting under the mistletoe. 

"It's time!!! To smash that pumpkin and treat it as pie," the video concluded with a text graphic. "Cause we still gotta get through Thanksgiving!!!" 

Last year, Carey brought some holiday cheer with "Mariah Carey's Magical Christmas Special," which featured musical performances and celebrity cameos including Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, Snoop Dogg, Bette Midler and Billy Eichner.

Carey spoke with USA TODAY in 2019 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of "All I Want For Christmas Is You," though according to the pop legend, it was as if no time had passed at all.  

"It's so funny, somebody was just asking me, 'What were you doing 25 Christmases ago?' " Carey said. "I would probably say somebody was giving me a bottle and they were singing me a sweet lullaby Christmas tune. Because I was just 1 year old, so I don't know!  

"It's very much like I live in the land of the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus," she added wryly. "I don't acknowledge time, I don't know what it is. I rebuke it." 

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Coming off the success of her 1993 third album, "Music Box," which was No. 1 for eight non-consecutive weeks, Carey's team came to her with the idea of recording a holiday album. 

"Originally, I was like, 'This is a little bit too early in my career to do a Christmas album,' " Carey said. "I didn't understand why it was being suggested to me."

But she decided to give it a shot anyway. Sharing a home with then-husband Tommy Mottola in Upstate New York at the time, she recalled sitting alone at a keyboard one day and starting to play what would soon become "All I Want."  

"I really started with thinking, 'What are all the things I think about at Christmas?' Lights, presents, stockings, fireplaces," Carey said. "I've always loved Christmas so much my entire life, but I grew up not having a lot of money and not being able to experience it like the other kids did. I wanted Christmas to be perfect, but for a lot of different reasons, it didn't always end up working out well, coming from such a dysfunctional family.

"So I think when I wrote it, I just put every ounce of longing for that perfect moment in it."

Contributing: Patrick Ryan

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