All I want for Christmas is, apparently, a passport. NME reports that Mariah Carey has officially announced a festive UK arena tour for 2026, so the Queen of Christmas is crossing the Atlantic to thaw out arenas in December the way only she can.

Details on the full run of dates, venues and ticket availability are over at NME, and tickets are already on sale, so if you're the kind of person who has "All I Want for Christmas Is You" memorized down to the whistle register, this is your moment. Move fast. Mariah tours are not the kind of thing you sleep on and casually grab seats for a week later.

I have a lot of respect for the whole modern Christmas-music industrial complex, but Mariah is the one who built the template everyone else is photocopying. That song comes back every year like a tide, and instead of letting it become wallpaper she turned it into an entire annual event, complete with decorative staging, costume changes and a level of commitment to sparkle that puts most arena productions to shame. It's a jukebox musical of her own making and she's the star every single December.

There's a real case for seeing this stuff live instead of letting it play over supermarket speakers. Christmas songs are communal by design, written for rooms full of people who all know the words, and an arena full of Brits belting the "I don't want a lot for Christmas" bridge together is a very specific kind of joy, the kind you can't replicate on a playlist. I felt something similar watching the crowd at a Romeo + Juliet concert screening recently; some music just needs company.

My colleague Jess Wingo would tell you I'm the guy who complains about Christmas music in stores before Halloween, and she's not wrong. But a Mariah Christmas show in an actual arena in December is seasonal entertainment doing exactly what it's supposed to do. That's the right room for it.

No word yet on whether any special guests or setlist surprises are planned, but if the past runs are anything to go by, expect the hits, the festivity and at least one moment where she holds a note long enough to make you question physics. I'll keep an eye on the dates and update if more get added, because these things have a habit of selling out and then growing a second leg.

If you go, tell me how the whistle note lands live. I've always wondered if it hits different in person. I suspect it does.