There’s always debate about when Christmas festivities should begin, with the fatigue-conscious putting off partaking until at least December 1, while others hardly wait for the Halloween decor to come down before decking the halls.
Still, like it or lump it, you’ll probably hear some of the most instantly recognizable xylophone tinkles in music history even earlier this year.
It seems that Mariah Carey is already defrosted for 2025: her classic hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has officially re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 after accruing almost 10 million streams (+252% week-over-week) from Oct 31 to Nov 6, per Luminate.
This marks one of the earliest points that the song, which is estimated to gross up to $4 million each year, has ever charted in the US, only achieving this milestone at the very end of November in 2023, reports Sherwood News.
It’s not just Mariah, however — Spotify data, compiled by Kworb, shows that users are generally listening to the wider Yuletide genre earlier each year, and in greater quantities.
Last year, “AIWFCIY” had its biggest week on Spotify in history, accruing nearly 93 million streams from Dec 19 - 26 — and more than 323 million across the whole festive season from Nov 7 onwards. “Last Christmas” by Wham! notched 314 million total streams over the same nine weeks on Spotify in 2024, and has also already re-entered the Billboard chart in 2025.
Compare this to 2013, when both songs entered Spotify’s Top 200 just three weeks before Christmas, and it’s clear that the music-on-demand era brought about by streaming has been good news for merry mega-hits. While the trend has something to do with streaming’s swelling userbase, the “christmas creep” observed in previous years might now be coming earlier, as many seek comfort at the end of a tumultuous 2025.