To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
Mariah Carey has officially defrosted for Christmas 2025 and unveiled a new advert for the festive season – but not all fans are loving it.
The All I Want For Christmas Is You songstress shared her latest ‘It’s Time’ announcement in the lead-up to the holiday season.
In previous years, Mariah has channelled her inner Morticia Addams, literally melted from a block of ice and dusted off the reindeer.
In the new 2025 advert posted to Mariah’s Instagram, as well as that of the beauty brand Sephora’s account, she is joined by a grumpy elf played by Billy Eichner.
An angelically dressed Mariah tells the cameras that while ‘Halloween slayed’, it’s time for the main event of the year to kick into gear.
Except, Mariah notices that her make-up bits and pieces, from Sephora, have gone missing from her dressing room table, while Billy’s disgruntled elf reveals that the elves are going on strike this year.
Admitting himself to be the one who pinched the make-up, he says he’s going to be pawning it to afford ‘elf therapy’ – before declaring that ‘Christmas is cancelled’.
‘Your lipstick? I’m taking it. No bells, no cheer, no glam,’ he tells Mariah, who’s all dolled up in white. Before he makes away with the bags, he asks if she has any last words.
Throwing her voice up to an impossibly high register, Mariah sings ‘it’s time’ and freezes the thieving elf into a snowman, while also doing an outfit swap into a Santa Claus-inspired red number.
Helming a sleigh with a pack of reindeer flying, Mariah’s inescapable hit All I Want For Christmas Is You starts playing.
While some followers in the comments section were happy for Mariah to once again usher in the festive season, others have labelled the advert ‘out of touch’ amid labour unrest and the cost of living crisis.
@buffysumrs wrote in the comments section: ‘Extremely out of touch with the reality of what is happening in this world, not even just America. Going on strike and pawning objects for food is a lot of people’s lives right now. I am disgusted by this ad.’
Meanwhile, @scrmlnd2.0 questioned: ‘So the message here is “working class on strike for being overworked and underpaid gets turned into snowman and is forced to work anyway”?’
Then @stephaniadeline echoed with the question: ‘My thing is, this coulda been a regular Christmas ad ? But it’s giving let them eat cake?!?!?!??????’
@vincentmuzic added: ‘Why are we romanticising crossing a picket line? Idc if in this scenario it’s made up that’s still so tone deaf and distasteful given the current climate.’
Metro contacted Mariah Carey’s representatives and Sephora for comment.
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.