How Mariah Carey is Making This Christmas Special For Her Twins
Mariah Carey’s favorite season is here and she’s reigning as the Queen of Christmas. Since releasing her newest Christmas song and celebrating “All I Want For Christmas Is You” making history again, Carey is most excited to spend time with her 11-year-old twins. The singer says her holiday is filled with meaningful traditions.
Mariah Carey’s tradition-filled Christmas
When speaking with Us Weekly, Carey said she’s looking forward to getting some much-needed rest due to all she has to do for Christmas. “Me sleeping [is important],” she said. “Here’s the thing, I stay up really [late]. We have a lot of traditions and we start doing them all on the 23rd and then every night there’s, like, another thing.”
Related: Mariah Carey Explains Why She Creates ‘the Perfect Christmas’ Every Year
Carey’s main focus is ensuring her children are enjoying their holiday. So much so that she doesn’t even open any of her own presents until the next day. “So Christmas morning I’ve already been up since 5 a.m. getting everybody’s packages together and this and that,” she explained. “[So] I’m just like, ‘You know what? I’m not opening my stuff until the next day.’ So, we do breakfast and the kids open their presents and whoever wants to open their presents can do it. I just prefer to wait until I can actually look at it and, and be, like, ‘Oh, this is amazing.’ That means not when I just haven’t even slept. I go back to sleep and then, like, have the afternoon kind of moment.”
Making Christmas special is important to her because of what she says she lacked growing up. “Everything is over the top, but you know what? I feel like I need them to know that that’s a big deal, that not everybody has that,” she said. “But I also didn’t grow up with…sometimes it was a wrapped-up orange that I got. So it’s, like, I didn’t grow up with all the gifts in the land. I kind of love making their holidays great…I like Christmas morning, them opening up a lot of gifts. It’s fun. There’s really nothing like it.”
She gushes over her holiday partnership with McDonald’s that she’s happy to share with her kids
This year, Carey has a special free menu with McDonald’s, specifically for the holiday season. Inspired by the “12 Days of Christmas,” Carey’s “12 Days of Deals” provides customers who spend a minimum of $1 with a free menu item of their choice. The promotion features special packaging. Of the partnership, Carey says it means the most to her because of McDonald’s connection to her childhood. She told Us Weekly:
I’ve said this a lot of times, but, like, you know, I grew up with very — I don’t want to say modest because that almost makes it sound bigger than it was. We didn’t have much of anything. So McDonald’s was a humongous deal for me to be able to have. So when we talked about it and we started talking about the menu and the arches and the whole thing with the merch, it was just amazing.
Related: Mariah Carey and McDonald’s are Partnering For the Christmas Holiday
Carey said it’s even more special to share this moment with her children. “I was so excited to tell my kids because, you know, they love it,” she said. “They’re super [excited], especially my son, my daughter is, like, her quote is ‘I have a sophisticated palette.’ OK. But she also does love McDonald’s and she does love her cheeseburger with extra pickles. We have the same favorite, anyway. So it’s been amazing and so much fun.”
The singer says her children are aware of her holiday success
Carey has a lot to celebrate this year. Her 1994 Christmas classic “All I Want For Christmas Is You” was recently certified Diamond, selling over 10 million copies. It’s the only holiday single to ever achieve that feat. Carey says her twins are celebrating the success with her.
Related: Singers Who’ve Released Successful Christmas Albums
“They’re aware of the success, the records, and this new diamond certification,” she said. “They see these things and they see it on a list with songs of like the most current artists. Then they see it at No. 1 and they’re like, ‘What in the world?’”
Every year, Carey typically takes a trip to a ski resort with her children. It’s unknown whether she’ll do the same this year
