“It was so early in my career. I didn’t feel — from a strategic point of view — that it was time to do something like that, As much as I love Christmas, I thought that the record company was off. Obviously, I couldn’t have been more wrong.” “The writing and the actual recording of the new Christmas songs was really an interesting experience, because you are coming from a totally different perspective. It was definitely a priority for me to write at least a few new songs. But for the most part, people really want to hear the standards at Christmas, no matter how good a new song is.”

Merry Christmas is the fourth studio album by Mariah Carey, and her first Christmas album. Released by Columbia Records on October 28, 1994, at the peak of the initial stretch of Carey’s career, between Music Box (1993) and Daydream (1995), the album features cover versions of popular Christmas songs in addition to original material. Carey worked with Walter Afanasieff, with whom she wrote all of the original tracks, as well as producing Carey’s interpretations of the covered material. Three singles were released from the album, of which “All I Want for Christmas Is You” went on to become one of the best-selling singles of all time and the best-selling Christmas ringtone in the United States.

Critical response to the album’s Christmas theme was mixed. Some music critics complimented the “gospel and soul-inflected” vocals and even called it “Carey’s best record” to date. Re-released on multiple occasions in various formats since its debut, the album has sold 5.7 million copies in the United States as of December 2019 and has been certified nine-times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Internationally, it reached number one in Japan, Latvia, and Lithuania. It achieved the top-ten in 20 additional countries including Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. Merry Christmas has sold 18 million copies worldwide, and stands as one of the best selling holiday albums in world history.

Tracklisting