Every November the same joke goes around: Mariah Carey is “defrosting.” The chart history behind it is real, and it’s unlike anything else on the Billboard Hot 100. A song released in 1994 reached No. 1 for the first time in December 2019 and has come back to No. 1 in every holiday season since.
We counted every run. Here are all 22 weeks, season by season, when each run began and ended, and what the pattern does and doesn’t tell you about this December.
The short version
- 22 weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100, through the chart dated January 3, 2026, across seven separate runs, one per holiday season since 2019.
- The first No. 1 came on the chart dated December 21, 2019, 25 years after release. Billboard reported a record 35 cumulative chart weeks to get there.
- The record came and went. Its 20th week, on the chart dated December 20, 2025, made it the longest-running No. 1 in Hot 100 history. Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” passed it in September 2026 (see every Hot 100 No. 1 of 2026).
- The runs have started earlier. The first No. 1 week of each season has fallen between December 13 and December 25. The two most recent were the earliest: December 14, 2024 and December 13, 2025.
Every run, season by season
| Holiday season | Chart dates at No. 1 | Weeks | Running total | Billboard’s report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019–20 | Dec. 21, Dec. 28, Jan. 4 | 3 | 3 | First No. 1 |
| 2020–21 | Dec. 19, Jan. 2 | 2 | 5 | Back at No. 1 |
| 2021–22 | Dec. 25, Jan. 1, Jan. 8 | 3 | 8 | Record return |
| 2022–23 | Dec. 17, Dec. 24, Dec. 31, Jan. 7 | 4 | 12 | 10th week |
| 2023–24 | Dec. 23, Dec. 30 | 2 | 14 | 14th week |
| 2024–25 | Dec. 14, Dec. 21, Dec. 28, Jan. 4 | 4 | 18 | 17th week, her longest No. 1 |
| 2025–26 | Dec. 13, Dec. 20, Dec. 27, Jan. 3 | 4 | 22 | 20th week, the record |
Chart dates as compiled in Wikipedia’s yearly lists of Hot 100 No. 1s, 2019 to 2026, which cite Billboard for every week. The running totals match the milestone counts in Billboard’s own reports (10th, 14th, 17th, 20th weeks). Count and table: Authority Daily.
Three things in the table are worth noticing.
- It has never held No. 1 for more than four weeks in one season. The holiday window is short. A song this seasonal can only win the chart weeks whose tracking periods fall in the run-up to Christmas and the week after.
- Its two-week seasons each had a rival. In 2020–21, Taylor Swift’s “Willow” took the chart dated December 26 between its two weeks. In 2023–24, its run didn’t start until December 23, and Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” took No. 1 on the chart dated January 6, 2024.
- Its record fell to a song with no season. “Choosin’ Texas” passed 22 weeks in a single year of ordinary listening. “All I Want for Christmas Is You” needed seven Decembers.
The records along the way
From Billboard’s weekly reports, as summarized in the song’s chart history:
- First Christmas No. 1 since 1958. It was only the second Christmas song to top the Hot 100, after “The Chipmunk Song” in 1958.
- No. 1 in four decades. Its third week, on the chart dated January 4, 2020, made Carey the first artist to top the Hot 100 in four separate decades.
- Seven separate runs. It was the first song ever to reach No. 1 in three or more separate runs on the chart. It now has seven.
- Carey’s 100th week. Its 21st week, on the chart dated December 27, 2025, gave Carey her 100th career week at No. 1, the first artist to reach that.
- The Holiday 100. As of January 3, 2026 it has led Billboard’s seasonal Holiday 100 for 71 of that chart’s 79 weeks since 2011. Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” ended a 43-week streak in 2023.
- Certifications. The RIAA certified it Diamond in 2021, the first holiday song to reach that, and 18× Platinum on December 15, 2025.
What to expect this December
The pattern says the song will very likely be back near the top. It has topped the Hot 100 in all seven holiday seasons since 2019, and in each of the last two it got there earlier than ever. The pattern can’t tell you the chart date. That depends on how quickly holiday streaming builds against whatever new releases are out that week. Given how 2026 has gone, that could include “Choosin’ Texas” itself. If the song does return, every week from here adds to a total no other holiday song is close to.
We’ll add the 2026–27 run to the table above as Billboard reports it.
Method
- Data. Every Hot 100 chart week from December 2019 to January 2026 at which “All I Want for Christmas Is You” was No. 1, from Wikipedia’s yearly lists of Hot 100 No. 1s. Those lists cite Billboard’s chart page and weekly report for each week.
- Check. Our running total was checked against the milestone weeks Billboard reported: 10th (December 2022), 14th (December 2023), 17th (December 2024), 20th and 21st (December 2025).
- Seasons. A “holiday season” is one December run plus any January weeks that continue it.
Last updated: October 28, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
How many weeks has All I Want for Christmas Is You been No. 1? 22 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, through the chart dated January 3, 2026, across seven separate holiday runs since December 2019. The 2026–27 holiday season will add to that total if it returns to No. 1 again.
When did All I Want for Christmas Is You first hit No. 1? On the Billboard Hot 100 dated December 21, 2019, 25 years after its 1994 release. Billboard reported it took a record 35 cumulative weeks on the chart to get there, and it was the first Christmas song to top the Hot 100 since The Chipmunk Song in 1958.
When will All I Want for Christmas Is You be No. 1 in 2026? Nobody can know in advance. It depends on how fast holiday streaming builds against whatever else is out. The pattern so far: its first week at No. 1 each season has come on charts dated between December 13 and December 25, and the last two seasons started earliest, on the charts dated December 14, 2024 and December 13, 2025.
Is All I Want for Christmas Is You still the longest-running No. 1? No. Its 20th week at No. 1, on the chart dated December 20, 2025, made it the longest-running No. 1 in Hot 100 history, and it reached 22 weeks on January 3, 2026. In September 2026, Ella Langley’s Choosin’ Texas passed it with a 23rd week, and it had 25 by the chart dated October 31, 2026.
Why does All I Want for Christmas Is You drop off the chart after Christmas? Because its listening is almost entirely seasonal. The song climbs through December, holds No. 1 around the holidays, and falls out of the Hot 100 in January when holiday streaming stops. It was the first song to fall completely off the Hot 100 in the week after its final week at No. 1.
