As she does every year, the Christmas Queen has arrived. Mariah Carey kicked off her most lucrative period of the year (and also the holidays, we guess) by showing up at Jimmy Kimmel’s place in a surprising choice of frock. For once, she’s not a lady in red.
We sometimes wonder if she gets tired of wearing the retro Christmas drag her role as Christmas Queen requires, but we figure she makes so damn much money off her iconic single “All I Want for Christmas is You” every year that she’s probably happy to dress up like a sexy Mrs. Claus for a couple of months just to keep the dollars flowing. So this is a minor surprise. We have no doubt she’ll wear something in the traditional red and green some time during her holiday-themed tour, but this feels holiday festive without giving the impression she put up her tree too early. It’s got a little bit of a toy soldier vibe, but not too literal. There is no one alive who’s marketed the holidays as effectively as she has, which means no one knows better than her that you need to ease the people into the season so they don’t get sick of it by the time peak buying has arrived.
