When is the official start of Christmas? That question has been on everyone’s head for decades, if not more. When is it acceptable to set up the Christmas tree and decorations, wear that ugly sweater that has been waiting for you for eleven months, and get cozy watching Hallmark movies? When does Christmas start? Well, it is not up to any of us; it’s up to her, the Queen of Christmas: Mariah Carey. Once the summer ends in the Northern hemisphere, it’s a matter of perception. Right after Labour weekend, Canada gets ready for Thanksgiving before Halloween, while the United States decides on their costumes before they gobble gobble. But once we’ve all digested the turkey from our Thanksgiving celebrations, it’s Mariah Carey's time.

How many times do we listen to ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ every December? The unofficial answer is A LOT. It’s not only a matter of how many replays, but also about when it starts. Because there are some countries where that song becomes the official soundtrack of the holiday season way ahead of others. So we have decided to look it up. Using Spotify data from last year, 2021, we have researched when and where Mariah Carey’s song gets into the top 10 on each country and, if so, when it hits #1. Here are the results:

There are some patrons we can easily see. For example, in Europe, Mariah Carey hits the top 10 ahead of the United States or Canada. The record was Iceland in 2021, where the song snuck into the ten most popular songs on November 14, 40 days before Christmas. Austria, Ireland or Scandinavia, and countries such as Denmark and Sweden, also have Carey’s biggest hit among the top 10 a month before Christmas day.

The two most popular days for Mariah to get into the viral Spotify lists were November 27th, when she hit top-10 in six countries, including the United Kingdom and Germany, and December 1st, with five other countries, with Australia, New Zealand and Canada among them. The only days with more new entries were Christmas eve and Christmas day. Never is too late to start feeling Mariah Carey’s magic during the holiday season.

What about number #1? Well, there are four countries where Mariah was number #1 before December started: Sweden, Germany (Nov. 27th both), Switzerland and Latvia (Nov. 28th). But she doesn’t reach the top in every single country. Austria, Finland o Lithuania are countries were she spends a whole month in the top 10 but never #1. Even in the United States, where she is from, Mariah Carey never reached the first spot, property of Brenda Lee and her ‘Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree’.

Latin America has its own Christmas music, so ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ is not the most popular song during the holiday season. Still, in some countries like Chile, Bolivia or Mexico, Mariah gets into the top ten exactly on Christmas day, and just for 24 hours. People are celebrating while listening to her. Other countries, like Argentina (58) or Colombia (60), Mariah didn’t even hit the top 50.

Spotify has data from 67 countries from last December and Mariah Carey was one the ten most popular songs in 50 of them (74.6% of them). She also hit #1 in 33 of the listed countries, which is virtually 50%. She is, with no doubt, the Queen of Christmas worldwide.