While new Christmas songs get churned out every year, the most popular ones tend to stay exactly the same from year to year. As of this writing, the top ten of Billboard's Christmas song chart contains the like of Burl Ives, The Ronettes, Nat King Cole, Andy Williams, and Brenda Lee. The one exception is the song that tops the chart, by far the most popular Christmas song of the last 30 years, Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You". Initially released in 1994, the song was well-received and popular, but didn't really become the ubiquitous holiday season force until the early teens. Given that Carey is one of the few original performers of a Christmas standard still actively making music, she has earned the nickname "Queen of Christmas"
In terms of filmed Christmas productions, she has done one previous special, Mariah Carey's Merriest Christmas, which premiered in 2015 on Hallmark, and was a tie-in with a movie she directed for the network. Two years later, she lent her voice and executive produced a Christmas animated film, called (of course) All I Want For Christmas Is You. But it's safe to say that none of these previous projects can come to topping her new special, Mariah Carey's Magical Christmas Special. Unlike A Holly Dolly Christmas, which was very stripped down, Mariah's show is very, very, very, very big--big guest stars, big sets, multiple costume changes, and a storyline that has Carey literally saving Christmas.
The Tiffany Haddish-narrated special starts with Santa's elves lamenting that, after a very tough year, there is no Christmas spirit to be found (while the special never directly refers to the pandemic, it's pretty obvious why no one is in the mood to celebrate). With Christmas on the verge of being cancelled, the head elf (Billy Eichner) calls Mariah, who agrees to fly to the North Pole (in a sleigh hidden behind her fireplace) to put on a fabulous Christmas concert and save the day.
The rest of the special is Carey wandering around the North Pole, usually in a different outfit from the last scene, and performing a number, while Eichner tries to convince her to stay on task, an odd subplot, since she is Marah Carey, it's her special, and we all know she's going to do whatever she damn well pleases. And what pleases her is singing. She sings "Sleigh Ride" while flying in her sleigh, "Oh Santa" with no less than Jennifer Hudson and Ariana Grande on the floor of Santa's toy factory, and "O Holy Night" while in a forest. Plus, to promote the new corporate synergy that brought Peanuts specials to the streamer, she meets Woodstock. Meanwhile, Snoop Dogg and Jermaine Dupri show up to rap, ballet dancer Misti Copeland dances an excerpt from The Nutcracker, and Bette Midler and Heidi Klum show up for about 20 seconds each on a monitor to proclaim their lack of Christmas spirit. It's all so, so much.
I would say this is a throwback to specials from the 60s and 70s, which frequently tried to slap a plot between the performances, but I'm pretty sure no special from that time was anything like this...or any special from our current time, either. Old specials weren't this lavish, weren't this star-studded, weren't this big.
In case you were wondering, of course, Mariah saves Christmas, and the special ends as it must, with her belting out "All I Want For Christmas Is You", in what has to be at least her tenth outfit of the night. Mariah fans will be in heaven. That said, I don't want to shortchange this for potential viewers who aren't as enamored with Mariah. It really is a sight to behold.
I can't really say Mariah Carey's Magical Christmas Special is good, but its very much watchable. It can be cheesy and silly and weird, but its heart is in the right place. I personally prefer Parton's special, but Mariah's is well worth a watch--maybe even more than Parton's. While Parton's special represents the reality of 2020, Carey represents the ideal version of the year. And maybe that's the version we need this year.
Next time: Another all-star Christmas special, from up north (not that far north)
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