Why do we hear the same Christmas songs year after year?

""It wasn't a known science at all back then, and there was nobody who did new, big Christmas songs," her songwriting partner Walter Afanasieff said to Billboard in 2014. Carey already had a dozen top 10 hits by the time she released "All I Want for Christmas is You," many of them written and produced with Afanasieff. For their new song, they paired her pop diva vocals with production inspired by holiday classics from the '50s and '60s."

""Once streaming really kicked in the mid 2010s, we've seen the song be so huge every year," he says. "All I Want For Christmas Is You" has gone on to become a success on nearly every platform, including social media, but if you take streaming data on Spotify as an example, it's striking to see just how dominant Carey's hit is, compared to challengers, whether old or new."

Mariah Carey released "All I Want for Christmas Is You" in 1994 when new, major Christmas singles were uncommon. The song paired Carey's established pop vocals with production modeled on 1950s and 1960s holiday classics. The single achieved modest initial success and recurring radio play through subsequent Christmas seasons. The rise of digital platforms and streaming in the mid-2010s transformed the song into an annual phenomenon. The track has succeeded across platforms, including social media and Spotify, consistently outperforming older holiday standards and newer contenders and remaining unmatched by any new Christmas song since its release.

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