Mariah Carey‘s favorite festive song isn’t her own “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
The 54-year-old singer is known to be a huge fan of the holiday season and her own blockbuster single is a fixture throughout the month of December, but she admitted neither that or her other Christmas track “Oh Santa!” are at the top of her holiday playlist.
“My favorite all-time Christmas song is Nat King Cole’s version of [The] Christmas Song — that’s my favorite,” she told talk show host Jennifer Hudson.
But there is still lots of time for Carey — who has 12-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe with ex-husband Nick Cannon — to listen to her own festive songs because she doesn’t “let anybody listen to anything but Christmas music” during the holiday period, and even the “movies have to be Christmas-related.”
“Do you have a favorite Christmas movie?” Hudson asked.
“Well, I love Elf. I gotta say that. And then I like Miracle on 34th Street, the original one. It’s an older one, but it’s got something about it,” Carey replied.
The Dreamgirls star noted her own favorite is Home Alone, prompting Carey to agree. “Yes, everybody loves Home Alone.”
When it comes to decorating for Christmas, the “Fantasy” singer has multiple trees.
“In the main part of the house, there will be a nice, tall Christmas tree with gold and silver — not actual gold. Then I have a smaller multicolored-lights tree, like the Charlie Brown tree, with some ornaments that my fans made for me and different stuff like that,” she explained.
And while she admitted “nobody believes” her, Carey insisted she does her fair share of cooking over the festive period.
“I cook Italian food on the 23rd, because my father had a recipe for linguine with white clam sauce that he left for me before he passed away. It’s very good. I make that and some other things. I do a traditional Christmas dinner, and I help. I’m not there doing everything alone. I’m not gonna say that. But I do add a little bit of seasoning,” Carey said.
