The All I Want For Christmas is You hitmaker has long been associated with the holidays, not just because of her beloved festive anthem, but for her unashamed passion for the festivities.

This year, though, she worried her book, The Meaning of Mariah, which has proved to be a popular gift for devotees, might not be the happy tonic people need after a difficult year of the coronavirus crisis and global lockdowns - and it was a relative who alerted her to the fact.

"Now we're in this Christmas grandeur," Mariah smiled on Live with Kelly and Ryan, "but someone was like, 'It's not a happy book'. A person that I still talk to, that I'm related to, he's like, 'Yeah it's a sad book. I love it, but it's hard'."

She went to explain: "He said, 'It's not a happy book, it's a sad book," which worried her.

"I tried to not bring Christmas to a sad place," she insisted, "and there's a happy ending with a snow globe of joy as the last chapter and being on stage at (New York City's) Madison Square Garden when All I Want for Christmas is You went to number one last year."

Meanwhile, Mariah is determined to make the best of the special time of year, despite all the lockdown rules.

"It's still COVID, but we're making it through," she added, "We will not be unfestive."