Mariah Carey Revealed The Reason Why She Loves Christmas So Much & It's So Bittersweet

Mariah Carey has been on a mission to embrace Christmas to the fullest every year since she was a little girl. The pop superstar has been a holiday icon since 1994 when she released her chart-topping hit "All I Want For Christmas Is You," but her love for the festivities goes even further back. Mariah Carey's quotes about why she loves Christmas are so bittersweet.

More than 25 years after the debut of "All I Want For Christmas Is You," Carey continues to top Billboard’s Holiday top 100 chart with the track each holiday season. In a candid interview with Elle, Carey explained that her fascination with Christmas comes from a series of unfortunate holiday seasons she had growing up. "I think it’s just that longing that I had as a child, that I always wanted things to be perfect for the holidays," she said. "And they never were. It was always somebody ruining the moment, always these dysfunctional family members who came around and foiled everything. And so I just made a pact with myself that I wasn’t going to allow that to happen anymore."

Carey went on to share that it was really after her 1997 split from ex-husband Tommy Mottola that she started to create "the Christmases that I wanted to have."

When it comes to how Carey does the holidays now, with her and ex Nick Cannon's twins Moroccan and Monroe, she explained: "I literally go to a snowy place. Reindeer are there. I’m not making this up. Santa Claus comes, hangs out with the kids. And by the way, even if I didn’t have kids, I would be doing this."

Carey said that while "a lot of very bad stuff" happened to her when she was 12 years old, she recalls Christmas being "the one time that I got to breathe for a second."

This year, Carey is bringing joy to people around the world with her Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special, which is set to hit Apple TV+ on Dec. 4. “It’s been such a hard year, and I really feel like people so need a celebratory moment," she said of the global coronavirus pandemic keeping people from celebrating together this year.

Carey definitely does *the most* during Christmastime, and now fans know why.