Mariah Carey's 'Queen of Christmas' reign almost didn't happen

Mariah Carey nearly missed out on becoming the Queen of Christmas.

At the peak of her stardom in the '90s, the Grammy Award-winning artist, 55, was presented with an idea: record a Christmas album. But, there was one issue. 

"I felt it was too early in my career," she recently told The New York Times. 

However, at her core, Carey knew she was always destined to make her "own little magical, merry world of Christmas."

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Mariah Carey's song "All I Want for Christmas Is You" became a hit in 1994.  (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Mariah Carey)

"I focused on all the things my mother struggled to create; all I needed was a shower of glitter and a full church choir to back me up," she said of recording her fourth studio album, "Merry Christmas," which featured original songs including "All I Want for Christmas Is You."

That "little girl’s spirit and those early fantasies of family" were the inspiration behind her massive hit 30 years ago. 

Born in Huntington, New York, Carey was the youngest of three children. Her parents divorced when she was 3 years old. 

"I had some very sad Christmases as a child, but I always try to find the bright light there," she told W magazine in 2022. 

The singer first opened up about her tumultuous upbringing in her 2020 memoir, "The Meaning of Mariah Carey."

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Carey has been dubbed the "Queen of Christmas" by her fans.  (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Mariah Carey)

"It was an extremely dysfunctional childhood, to the point where it’s shocking that I made it out of that at all," Carey, who allegedly experienced abuse at the hands of her siblings, told W. 

Carey's father, Alfred, was a Black aeronautical engineer and her mother, Patricia, was a White opera singer. Being biracial, she always felt different. 

"There were no role models for people who were clearly mixed or, you know, light-skinned or whatever we were categorizing it as then. So, I didn’t know who to look up to when I was growing up," she said. "It was difficult."

Despite the odds, Carey was able to persevere and when the time came to turn turmoil into joy, that's just what she did. 

"Christmas makes me happy," she told W. "People think I had this princess-style life or whatever, a kind of fairy-tale existence where I just emerged, like, ‘Here I am!’ And that is not what it is.

"When you grow up with a messed-up life and then you’re able to have this transformation where you can make your life what you want it to be? That is joy for me," she added. 

The singer said her tumultuous childhood inspired her career.  (Michael Ostuni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

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"That’s why I want my kids to have everything they can have. I want them to be able to understand that they can be anything they want to be."

Carey wrote the mega hit, "All I Want for Christmas Is You," in 1994. 

"I didn’t want it to feel specific to any era, so we didn’t use sounds that were happening at that time," she told W. "That way, it would feel classic and timeless." 

Since its release, "All I Want for Christmas Is You" has become one of the longest-charting singles in any genre, spending 65 weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100, according to the Times. Her album, "Merry Christmas," has sold 18 million copies. 

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From her children's book and an animated film based on the song to Christmas apparel and ornaments, Carey has notably earned the title of "Queen of Christmas."

Mariah Carey wants her children, Monroe Cannon and Moroccan Scott Cannon, "to understand that they can be anything they want to be." (Gilbert Flores/Penske Media via Getty Images)

In March 2021, Carey filed to trademark the term "Queen of Christmas." According to the application filed with the U.S. Trademark Office, the term would cover a large range of items like lotions, fragrances, jewelry, mugs, clothes, food, ornaments and music. 

"I could never have imagined that [the song] would become such a major part of my life," she told W. 

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Carey, whose 21-date holiday tour started this month, could not be more grateful for the ability to spread so much joy to others with her music. 

"It’s really rewarding, and I’m just grateful and thankful for it and for all the people that come up and say, ‘I love your music,’ or, ‘I listen to your Christmas music in July’ — that started to become a thing," she said. "I’ve always wanted to do this for my life, and so now we get to do it."

Carey said she "could never have imagined" the success she found.  (Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty Images)

And, ultimately, Carey credits the pain she went through as a child for the joy she feels today. 

"I realized, one day when I grow up, and I do what I'm dreaming of doing, which will happen, and I won't be in these sad circumstances forever, but one day I'm just going to remember what this feels like," Carey told Oprah Winfrey for the Apple TV+ series "The Oprah Conversation" in 2020. "So I don't turn into one of those people that has lost touch with the essence of who they are, but I really did in so many ways because of so many other outside components."

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Fox News Digital's Ashley Hume contributed to this report.