Mariah Carey says she decided to fully embrace the Christmas season after her marriage to record executive Tommy Mottola ended in 1997.
“After I kind of emerged from my first relationship–slash–marriage, I created the Christmases that I wanted to have,” Carey told Elle.
The 50-year-old superstar, whose “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is the gift that keeps on giving, explained she is making up for lost years.
“It’s just that longing that I had as a child, that I always wanted things to be perfect for the holidays. And they never were,” she said. “It was always somebody ruining the moment, always these dysfunctional family members who came around and foiled everything.
“And so I just made a pact with myself that I wasn’t going to allow that to happen anymore.”
Carey said her Christmas tradition includes snow, reindeer and Santa Claus – "and by the way, even if I didn’t have kids, I would be doing this.” (The singer has 9-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe with ex-husband Nick Cannon.)
“There is the spirit of that kid, that fighter who doesn’t give up, who does embrace who she is, even though the world didn’t understand that from my point of view,” said Carey, adding that Christmas was “maybe the one time that I got to breathe for a second.”