Mariah Carey declares ‘It’s Time’ for Christmas with a surprising nod to her rock era

Mariah Carey launches the 2026 Christmas season with an “It’s time” video featuring “Hermit,” a song from her little-known ’90s rock band Chick.

Mariah Carey has officially ushered in the Christmas season, but this year’s holiday announcement came with a surprise detour into a lesser-known chapter of her musical history.

The singer released her annual “It’s time” video as Halloween gave way to November, continuing a tradition that has become a familiar signal to fans that it is time to bring out the Christmas playlists. Instead of opening with her signature holiday sound, however, the clip begins with Carey performing “Hermit,” a track from a mid-1990s alternative rock project she worked on under the name Chick.

Entertainment Weekly noted that the song appeared on “Someone’s Ugly Daughter,” an album Carey helped write and produce with her friend Clarissa Dane. Carey contributed backing vocals to the project, but her involvement was not widely known until she discussed it in her 2020 memoir.

The video then shifts from the rock performance into a wintry Christmas scene. Carey appears atop a decorated tree, delivers her familiar “It’s time” announcement in her signature whistle register, and launches into “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” the 1994 hit that has become one of the defining songs of the holiday season.

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The annual reveal has developed into a seasonal event of its own, with Carey changing the setup each year. The 2025 video featured actor and comedian Billy Eichner as a disgruntled elf, while the 2024 clip played on a transformation from Morticia Addams into Carey’s familiar Mrs. Claus look. In 2023, she appeared to thaw out of an icy block, and the 2022 video showed her training for Christmas on an exercise bike.

The Christmas rollout also arrives after a major chart shift involving her best-known seasonal song. “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which had accumulated 22 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, a record it held until Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” overtook it earlier this year. By the week ending October 31, Langley’s song had reached 25 weeks at the top, according to chart figures reported by multiple outlets.

Carey’s holiday single has repeatedly returned to the upper reaches of the chart during the festive season. It spent four weeks at No. 1 in both 2024 and 2025, making another seasonal surge possible as radio stations and streaming playlists turn toward Christmas music.

Whether Carey can reclaim the record remains to be seen. For now, her latest video has delivered its annual message, while giving longtime fans a glimpse of a less familiar side of the singer before the Christmas classic takes over.