At Quartz, we have historically measured Christmas creep, the way the holiday season seems to come a little earlier every year, by the date when Christmas lights appear on Oxford Street, London’s most famous shopping thoroughfare. This year, there is a new metric in town.
At Quartz, we have historically measured Christmas creep, the way the holiday season seems to come a little earlier every year, by the date when Christmas lights appear on Oxford Street, London’s most famous shopping thoroughfare. This year, there is a new metric in town.
Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” is one of the most popular songs of all time. According to the Economist, the song has already netted Carey more than $60 million in royalties. It seems to be only getting bigger.
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Come holiday times, Carey’s Christmas anthem shoots up the Billboard Hot 100—the American music industry’s standard for ranking the most popular songs in a given week. Since 2012, when Billboard changed their rules to allow older songs to appear on the charts, it has arrived a little sooner each year. In 2018, the song charted earlier than ever, appearing at number 29 on the rankings for Nov. 16–22.
Before we know it, “All I Want for Christmas is You” will be the song of summer.
