Jimmy Kimmel was nestled all snug in his bed, while Mariah Carey and Santa Claus danced by his head.
The Queen of Christmas paid Kimmel a visit in the middle of the night to declare “It’s Time,” continuing her crusade of kicking off the holiday season. On Thursday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, viewers watched as Carey threw an epic dance party in Kimmel’s bedroom with Santa and some merry elves, playing her hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” over a loudspeaker while tossing fake snow all over his bed.
It’s an ongoing tradition for the late night host, who has previously been startled out of sleep with performances by Rihanna, Britney Spears, Dua Lipa, Miley Cyrus and more over the years.
“I’m like laying there and I’m like, ‘Something smells good,'” Kimmel tells Carey in the segment, hilariously wearing his wife’s bathrobe and a mouth guard for the conversation. “It was you, it turns out.”
Carey stopped by his studio for a sit-down chat the next day, opening up about why she’s began embracing an early start to celebrating the season.
“I had to just go with the flow because everybody was rushing the holiday season and they started playing my song,” she explained. “So I kept being like, ‘Not yet, don’t play it yet. It’s not time yet, why are we playing Christmas songs?’ But they were doing it, so then I just was like, OK, it became like a joke just for laughs.”
In recent years, Carey has sharing silly videos at midnight on Nov. 1 that show her seamlessly transitioning from Halloween into Christmas mode.
This year, the 54-year-old songstress is promoting her upcoming Merry Christmas One and All Tour. The trek will kick off Nov. 15 and wrap on Dec. 17 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Her children — son Moroccan and daughter Monroe, whom she shares with ex-husband Nick Cannon — will join her on the road and on stage during her performances.
“They’re gonna do various moments of music making and merriment,” she shared, adding that she feels it’s strongly about seeing them make and save their own money.
“They will be paid,” she explained. “I think it’s important for them to save their money so they’re not calling me when they’re older asking for money.”
Back in November 2021, Mariah spoke to ET’s Kevin Frazier about why she goes all-out at Christmastime with her kids.
“In my memoir, I talk about how when I was a little kid, growing up with no money, growing up being mixed [race], not understanding, having identity issues, and then going through my career and the different things that have happened, that I never even talked about to even some of my best friends,” Carey shared of the childhood experiences she detailed in her book, The Meaning of Mariah Carey. “When I wrote about Christmas, I was like, ‘Oh wait, I don’t want to bring people down,’ ’cause this seemed like depressing stuff that happened.”
She continued, “But that’s the reason that it motivated me to really go all the way in every Christmas, every year. I just want my kids to have the best time, and honestly, a lot of it is for me.”
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