How much is Mariah Carey paid for one Christmas song? Fearing the future and trusting God’s “perfect love”
The Daily Article
The Denison Forum
4.9 • 576 Ratings
🗓️ 24 December 2024
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What does the popularity of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” say about our culture? Her lyrics, whimsical as they are, do express something timeless: “Santa Claus won’t make me happy with a toy on Christmas Day,” because “all I want for Christmas is you.” We are created to want more than the “toys” this world can offer, because we were created for the eternal world to come. That’s why possessions must not possess us, since nothing we can make can fill the “God-shaped emptiness” with which God made us.
About Denison Forum and The Daily Article
Today's Daily Article was written by Dr. Jim Denison and narrated by Chris Elkins. You can read this article on our website. You may also receive it in your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter.
NOTE: Denison Forum is a fully donor-funded nonprofit ministry. To support our calling, please give at www.supportdf.org.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It's Christmas Eve, December the 24th, 2024. Welcome to the Daily Article podcast. I'm Chris Elkins, narrating today's daily article written by Denison Forum co-founder and CEO, Dr. Jim Denison. |
| 0:17.4 | When you hear the words, all I want for Christmas is you, does the song by that title immediately |
| 0:23.7 | spring to mine? If so, you're not alone. The song by Mariah Carey, recorded in 1994, is one of the |
| 0:31.1 | best-selling Christmas songs of all time. And it earns her an estimated $3.5 to $4 million every year. |
| 0:39.7 | Why is it so successful? |
| 0:41.1 | The answer in part is Carrie's amazing vocals. |
| 0:44.4 | But another is the theme of the song. |
| 0:47.1 | In an interview with Good Morning America, she recounted its origin. |
| 0:51.3 | Quote, I was working on it by myself on this little Casio keyboard and writing |
| 0:56.4 | down words and thinking about, what do I think of at Christmas? What do I love? What do I want? |
| 1:03.0 | What do I dream of? She then added, my goal was to do something timeless so it didn't feel like |
| 1:09.6 | the 90s, which is when I wrote it. |
| 1:11.9 | End quote. |
| 1:12.8 | Her lyrics, whimsical as they are, do express something timeless. |
| 1:17.9 | Quote, Santa Claus won't make me happy with a toy on Christmas Day because all I want for |
| 1:24.6 | Christmas is you, end quote. |
| 1:26.7 | We are created to want more than the toys this world |
| 1:30.3 | can offer because we were created for the eternal world to come. That's why possessions must not possess us, |
| 1:37.2 | since nothing we can make can fill this quote unquote God-shaped emptiness with which God made us. |
| 1:49.3 | Sinners can no more save themselves from sin than drowning people can save themselves from drowning, |
| 1:55.0 | and our fallen world is far too unpredictable to be a reliable source of stability. |
| 2:00.5 | There was a day when people viewed the future as a time of progress and even glamour. Radios and record players brought music into homes that could not afford pianos. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Denison Forum, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Denison Forum and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

