Illustration by Athena Little
Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ is still a great Christmas song
By EG Manilag, Staff Writer
The most wonderful time of the year is almost here, you guys! What better way to feel the holiday spirit than listening to Christmas songs? They really add colour to the season, be it the classic songs or the new ones. Whenever I see Christmas decorations hanging and hear those sleigh bells ringing from holiday jingles, it evokes nostalgic feelings. But there’s one song that gives me the ultimate Christmas nostalgia: Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” The song is not only catchy, but is also meaningful. Although there are some surveys that report the song as the most annoying holiday piece ever, the bop has many positive aspects that outshine any negative aspects. I think it is still a great seasonal song to this day.
What I love about this song is its overall musicality. The melody and tempo are so amazing that they make your fingers snap and your body move around, the chorus is insanely catchy and very easy to memorize, and the instruments remind you of the season of gathering, merriness, and joy. It’s purely a universal song that has no religious standing and no age requirement—it’s the perfect equalizer as a holiday song. Carey’s jingle simply portrays love and love alone—a thing we can all relate to. It centers on the idea that we should be more excited to see our loved ones and spend time rather than focusing on the material things. We should all have this kind of motivation every holiday, it really makes sense.
Another great thing about “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is that it never gets old. The song’s popularity really stood against the test of time. Recently, the 1994 holiday anthem broke three world records. Just last week according to the Guinness World Records’ website, Carey’s holiday hit song achieved the title for the highest-charting holiday song on the Billboard US Hot 100 by a solo artist; it is the most streamed track on Spotify in 24 hours (female); and the most weeks (20) in the UK singles Top 10 chart for a Christmas song. The music also had some successful covers sang by famous Canadian singer-songwriters, particularly Michael Bublé and Justin Bieber. Because of these awards and music covers, the classic song will stay evergreen.
Despite the song reaching all those glorious feats, it’s still failed to please everybody. An electronic survey conducted by Huawei asked the British public to give and rank 10 holiday songs they thought were annoying. It comes as no surprise that “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is ranked first. It might be because it’s played too much in malls and restaurants, or it might be because their ears were just worn out due to hearing the same tune repeatedly. These reasons still won’t undervalue the song itself.
To me, Mariah Carey’s jingle is one of those childhood songs that we really liked but eventually got tired of. Those were the songs we repeatedly played for hours, giving us unlimited goosebumps. Now, if we remember those songs, we either get emotional because we know for a fact that their meaning is never lost. It’s still great and always will be.
