Mariah Carey takes Christmas very seriously and revealed in a new interview what happens once she’s entered “holiday mode.”
Speaking with USA Today, the self-professed Queen of Christmas declared, “When I’m not on stage and I’m in holiday mode, there are rules that I set … I don’t care who it is – the kids, if I have guests, whatever – nobody is allowed to play or watch anything other than a Christmas-related thing.”
That rule cannot be broken. Added Mariah, “If I wake up in the middle of the night and walk into the living room, and the music isn’t playing and the lights aren’t on, I just can’t handle it.”
Just in time for the holidays, Mariah’s first children’s book, The Christmas Princess, has been released.
The singer describes the book’s main character, named Little Mariah, as a “mixed-race Pippi Longstocking” who uses music to help her cope with sadness.
As for what inspired her to write such a story, Mariah said, “The constant question was, ‘What are you?’ Not ‘who are you?’ but ‘what are you?’ … It made me feel like a thing — it did not make me feel like a human being. That was mainly the reason I wrote [my memoir]: to emancipate my little girl self. And she’s never really left me.”
She said she hopes this new book inspires “all the people who have ever felt othered.” Added Mariah, “It’s a short little book, but it really does have a deeper meaning.”
Mariah has dedicated the book to her younger self and begins the book with this letter: “No matter what things look like now, you are worthy and deserving of all the attention, love, protection, care, conditioner, and fancy dresses in the whole wide world.”
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