Mariah Carey reveals she makes Christmas special because of 'messed-up' childhood

Mariah Carey, who is known for her iconic Christmas songs, revealed the real reason why the holiday is so special to her.

In an interview with W Magazine, Mariah Carey opened up about the reason why she is always so big on Christmas, especially for her children.

“Darling, look, I know a lot of the time people are like, ‘Oh, yay! Look at her! She’s, like, so festive and such a Christmas girl,’ or whatever,” began the singer, 52.

“But, really, Christmas makes me happy. 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,” the All I Want for Christmas Is You crooner told the outlet.

Carey wrote in-depth in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, about her violent upbringing, per Page Six. In the book, she wrote how her “broken” big brother, Morgan Carey, was allegedly so “abusive” that she once called the cops on him for trying to hurt their mother.

According to Page Six, Mariah also alleged in her memoir that her older sister, Alison Carey, drugged her with a whole Valium when she was only 12 and left her with one of her sister’s boyfriends, who was allegedly packing a pistol on a creepy car ride.

“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,” the singer told W Magazine.

When asked what Christmas looked in her house, Carey shared, “I create my own Christmas moment.”

She continued, “I mean, Santa Claus visits us. He comes with his reindeer. I am not exaggerating—this is the truth. By the way, before my kids were born, I did all the same types of things. That’s just how it is with me and Santa and the reindeer.”

On the topic of gift-giving, Mariah shared that her children “make a lot of the stuff that they give to” her, at which point she recalled jokingly that ‘the tooth fairy’ forgot to visit the twins the previous night.

She added that the tooth fairy (Mariah herself) is “very generous,” which will allow her twins to shop some presents. “I think they have enough saved up and accumulated that they could actually buy me something this year, which would be amazing."

She added, "I love giving them gifts, because the act of opening up a ton of presents is something I wasn’t able to do as a child.”