Merry Christmas (Mariah Carey Album) - Composition

Composition

Merry Christmas boasted a variety of musical arrangements, sounds and genres. Carey's goal was to provide an album that would have a "Christmas feel," providing a mixture of soulful tracks, as well as fun and joyous holiday treats. The song "Jesus, Oh What a Wonderful Child", was described as an original track that "really took flight." The song was recorded in a church, with many live back-up singers and children playing tambourines and other melodious instruments. The goal was to produce a "real church flavored song," in which Afanasieff played the keyboards and allowed Carey's voice to "cut loose". According to Chris Nickson, Carey's love of gospel music came through on the track, writing, " led the band without pushing herself forward, letting the song develop and work out, trading lines with the chorus until, after the crescendo, the musicians moved into a fast double time to the end."

"You have to have a nice balance between standard Christian hymns and fun songs. It was definitely a priority for me to write at least a few new songs, but for the most part people really want to hear the standards at Christmas, no matter how good a new song is."

—Carey, describing Merry Christmas during an interview with CD Review

The album's lead track, "All I Want for Christmas Is You", was described as an "up-tempo love song, one that could have easily been written for Tommy Mottola." Another one of the album's original tracks was, "Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)", which was very different from its whimsical predecessor. The song was described as a "sad ballad," in line with many of Carey's previous hit singles. The song featured a synthesized orchestra, including keyboard notes courtesy of Afanasieff, during which Carey would sing to her "long-gone lover, crystallizing the way that Christmas brought memories of the past into focus." According to Nickson, it was "Jesus Born on This Day", that was the most impressive original track on the album. It was described as a "full-blown production number", which again featured synthesized orchestra, as well as a live children's choir. The song's tune was described as "solemn and hymn-like, but the arrangement, oddly, made it less religious and rather more glitzy, behind the lyrics that overtly praised Jesus."