Mariah Carey Wastes No Time Going Straight Into Christmas Mode on Nov. 1

Mariah Carey has set a new standard for the start of the Christmas season, and she has claimed the season all for herself. The singer posted a dramatic video of herself dressed up for Halloween on Monday night, but when the clock struck midnight she changed straight into her Christmas costume instead. The “All I Need for Christmas” singer continues to lean into her holiday stardom.

Carey’s video shows her dressed as a witch peddling on a stationary bike in black-and-white – a dazzling Halloween costume for her by any fans’ standards. The video includes an animated calendar, which takes over the screen as it switches from Oct. 31 to Nov. 1. When it clears in a flash, the whole scene has changed. Cary is now dressed in red and white like Santa Claus and is sitting on reindeer instead of a bike. The music shifts effortlessly into a Christmas tune as well, and Carey’s evil grin turns into a genuine smile.

“IT’S TIIIIIIIIME!!!!!!!!” Carey wrote alongside the post. She included three emojis – a Christmas tree, streamers and a heart. She also added the hashtag “Mariah szn,” implying that the Christmas season belongs to her now.

Carey’s song “All I Want for Christmas” has been a holiday staple for nearly three decades but in recent years it seems to have reached new heights. In 2019 she celebrated its 25th anniversary, and it reached number 1 on the Billboard charts. In 2021, it was listed at number 1 on Billboard‘s list of 100 greatest holiday songs of all time.

With achievements like that, Carey has fully embraced the Christmas season and her role as a sort of mascot for it. She has been called the “Queen of Christmas” at times, and some critics have argued that the holiday season has helped Carey rehabilitate her public image from her years in the tabloids. At 52 years old, she is now regarded as wholesome by many casual listeners.

In 2020, Carey herself told an interviewer from Elle that focusing on Christmas has been a cathartic, healing experience for her. She referenced her own troubled childhood by saying: “A lot of very bad stuff happened to me when I was 12. But also, there is the spirit of that kid, that fighter who doesn’t give up, who does embrace who she is, even though the world didn’t understand that from my point of view.”

As an adult, Carey said that seizing control of Christmas was important during her dark moments as well. She said: “After I kind of emerged from my first relationship-slash-marriage [to Tommy Mottola] I created the Christmases that I wanted to have.”