For richer and for poorer, Christmas has always been a big deal for Mariah Carey.
These days, as one of the most successful recording artists of her era, with five Grammys, album sales of more than 60 million and a reported fortune of $680 million under her belt, Christmas at her snowy Aspen home is “pretty grand”.
“It’s not too hard to get me into a Christmas mood,” Carey says. “I love decorating the tree, I love everything about it. We spend it in Aspen and go on a two-horse open sleigh ride through the snow.
“We have live reindeer come to the house every year, as well as Santa Claus, who always makes an appearance.”
But it wasn’t always that way. For the young Carey growing up in New York with a single mother, Christmases were very different.
“My mother would go carolling or have her friends come over to the house and she would play the piano and sing together with friends.”
She pauses.
“When I was growing up, my mother tried to make everything a good experience for me, even if she didn’t have a lot of money.”
She leans forward.
“This is the truth. She would wrap up fruit and give it to me because it’s fun just to open presents when you are a kid. It’s part of the whole experience.”
However it comes wrapped, Christmas is a business Carey takes very seriously — and this year she has doubled down on the festive cheer. She has earned the nickname “Queen of Christmas” in the US, thanks to her 1994 album Merry Christmas, which spawned the smash hit “All I Want For Christmas is You.” That Christmas cracker — which she was initially reluctant to record — has now become the most downloaded holiday song ever, at more than 3.2 million and counting. Despite being more than 20 years old, it reached No. 11 on the US charts last year and has since spawned a book, and now a straight-to-DVD animated film produced and narrated by Carey, which was released this week.
She released a second seasonal album, Merry Christmas II You, in 2010.
There’s also the celebrity-stuffed Christmas bon bon that is animated movie The Star, which also boasts the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Kelly Clarkson, Tracy Morgan, Kris Kristofferson, Keegan-Michael Key and two new, but pedigreed, talents: Carey’s six-year-old twins Monroe and Moroccan, who sing the title track alongside their powerhouse mother.
Evidently, Carey has no trepidation about her children, whose father is US TV personality Nick Cannon, following in their parents’ footsteps.
“When (Broadway composer) Marc Shaiman and I co-wrote the song together, I thought it would be fun for the children to participate on the track with me. It gave it a very Christmas-y and fun type of vibe, while sticking to the message and the spirit of Christmas,” Carey says. “The kids enjoy music and they love being onstage. Who knows, maybe they’ll continue (performing) … They’ll do what’s in their heart.”
Directed by Oscar nominated animator Timothy Reckart, The Star loosely follows the Nativity story: a brave donkey and his friends go on an adventure and become the unsung heroes of the first ever Christmas.
Carey also gives voice to a hen named Rebecca.
“It’s very important to have a story like this,” says Carey, who appreciates the film’s approach even more because, “they have told the story through the eyes of the animals.”
Carey’s larger-than-life persona is on vivid display this particular afternoon at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles. She is escorted by an entourage exceeding 15 people, including her kids, backup dancer boyfriend Bryan Tanaka and makeup artists. She’s also sporting a dazzling array of jewels, most notably, on her middle finger, the $13 million engagement ring bought for her by Australian ex-fiance James Packer.
“This is not the engagement ring finger, so that doesn’t make you engaged, darling,” she says, playfully.
Carey and Packer met in 2014; their relationship ended less than two years later.
The 47-year-old pop star’s colourful romantic history also includes a marriage to Sony Music mogul Tommy Mottola (1993-1997), a three-year relationship with singer Luis Miguel (1998-2001), and a second marriage to Cannon (2008-2014), which produced the twins.
Carey and the actor/comedian still maintain a warm friendship.
“Nick is a great father,” she raves. “We get along good; everything is so great between us and I am very thankful for that. It’s a process we work on together and he is most certainly very involved.”
How would Carey describe her parenting style?
“Am I strict?” She laughs. “No, although with some things I want to be strict, but I also don’t want them to be mad at me. So, I do the best I can, is the truth of the matter.”
In contrast to the no-holds-barred revelations dropped in her reality TV show Mariah’s World, an eight-part series that covered her 2016 world tour, Carey is playing it rather tight-lipped today.
Asked what she’s learnt about love over the years, and there’s a seemingly interminable silence before she finally responds.
“I don’t know that I know anything more about love than I did when I was in high school,” she insists. “I am the same person. So I just try to speak from the heart. But we are all continuing to learn, one hopes. You can’t really live life in regret. It’s about moving forward and being a good person.”
Unlike many of her contemporaries, as a young artist Carey’s earnings were never squandered, nor was she financially exploited.
But, she notes: “There are very powerful people in the music industry and my career began right after high school. It was a learning curve.
“No one can really protect you, but I was lucky enough to have seen a documentary about The Beatles selling their catalogue. It was then that I realised I had to hold onto my own catalogue as a songwriter,” she says.
“That’s where the power is.”