Elizabeth Chan This is the 15th year in a row she's released a new Christmas album every year, and after going through a divorce and becoming a single mother, she had no intention of putting an end to this personal and professional tradition. She believes all 15 of these entries reflect where she was in the year leading up to the season, and the fact that home and hearth looks a little different for her in 2025 is appropriately reflected in “Christmas Unhinged.”
The title of this year's episode is a reference to Hinge, which Chan chose as a dating app last year after his divorce. She could have gone for something more corny because, as she jokes, “This chapter is called 'One Bell, Lonely All the Way'.”
In all seriousness, Chan says, “I felt like I could really talk to everyone who listens to my Christmas music, and Christmas music lovers everywhere, to understand what kind of Christmas I had this year, and why it’s okay to experience Christmas not just in a snow globe of time, but as an actual living, lived experience.”
You may be familiar with Chan from the legend that has developed around her as the only known artist to dedicate her recordings exclusively to the Christmas music that was popular a decade ago, not to mention her 15-year continuous career. Or perhaps you came to know her as an artist who challenged Mariah Carey and won; Carey attempted to trademark the term “Christmas Queen” and Chan went to court to block it, claiming that she had also used it or had it applied to her many years or more ago. (Carey eventually stopped pursuing the trademark further, causing a judge to reject it and leave the slogan in the public domain.) If you're not familiar with any of these parts of Chan's story, you can trace the footprints in the snow through the previous ones Diversity articles including this one origin story.
But in 2025, we had a very final conversation with Chan about whether “Christmas Unhinged” is officially a divorce album, and what it's like to bring back the dating field and ultimately explain to all possible fans what exactly she's known for.
The answer may be obvious to anyone who knows you, but the question is, why release a Christmas album reflecting your divorce?
This is definitely new emotional territory for me. But if you take a step back and look at all 15 chapters of my Christmas music life, what makes my Christmas music so distinctive is that at the end of the year, when we all take inventory of where we are in our lives, I curate my albums to capture a snapshot of where I am. And if I get divorced, there are millions of other people just like me who will face the holidays without their spouse or without members of their family as they know it, or their traditions have been broken. I'm not the only one. So it's a huge honor for me to be able to create the kind of Christmas songs that are missing if we just stick to “Merry Christmas.” I can grow with my Christmas canon and share some songs that may inspire others to embrace all of the holidays—the good, the bad, and the unknown.
Would you go so far as to call this your Christmas divorce record?
I think last year was more of my Christmas album about divorce, with an album I called Shatterproof. I actually filed for divorce last year and was going through so much internal turmoil but wasn't ready to share it all yet. In the last album I depicted the coming end of my marriage as safely as I could. I only perform Christmas music, but that's how I process my emotions as an artist; it's very cleansing for me. “Christmas Madness” is what happens when I decide to get a divorce and begin to reinvent myself, focusing less on the pain of divorce and more on the opportunity to become who I am meant to be in the second act of my life. This is great for a single mother. You know, divorce starts out really sad, but there are so many possibilities because when you've been so down, the only place you can go is up, and I've never felt more like myself in years than I do right now.
On your social media, you've talked about what it's like to date the self-proclaimed Queen of Christmas and how men are reacting to it.
Especially when I was meeting people at the beginning of the Christmas season, which is around September, I started to get very nervous because that's when I can't hide this aspect of my life. First of all, I haven't even dated in 20 years. So when I had to start thinking about going on a date again and then download the app and look at hundreds and hundreds of random pictures and try to decide, “Hey, do I want to date you, Random Picture?”, it's the weirdest thing ever, isn't it? And I became very, very frustrated with the process. I ended up writing a non-Christmas song called “Love Me Right or Leave Me Alone,” which is honestly my Hinge dating mission status song.
I also recorded a cover of the Beatles' “Something” on this record because I don't think there's a real female version of that song. And when I was meeting new guys and going on all these dates, I was like, “Oh yeah, there's something about him.” And then I sang it to myself and put it on Hinge as my marriage call.
On this record, you included the Beatles doubly because you also covered John Lennon's “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” which you retitled “Happy Ex-mas.”
I only do covers if they transform the way I feel about the lyrics. When I got divorced, I started thinking seriously about the lyrics to this song, and the only lyric that really helped me in the studio to get through the pain of divorce was the lyric “The war is over if you want it.” When you are in the process of divorce, these words have so much power. And this is truly a message to my ex-husband. This is not the original intent of the song. But singing it the way I did, and even renaming it “Happy Ex-Mas” – sorry, Yoko, if that doesn't suit you! — the way it came out was super cathartic.
Going back to your dating experience this year, what was it like telling people what you're famous for?
I have met many different people of all nationalities, religions and cultures and they know me as Elizabeth and they relate to me if they too are going through a divorce or are a single parent. But sometimes the minute they find out I'm the Queen of Christmas, it's like a needle dropping. It's like, “What does this mean? Do you know I'm Jewish?” or something like that, and I was like, yeah, it doesn't matter. But this can be a very challenging task for people. It was just pure comedy.
Maybe they imagine it's like a Tim Allen movie and think they're going to date you, and then suddenly they turn into Santa Claus and grow a big beard and belly.
I think the only person who would really put up with it was the Mormon potato farmer I dated. I don't know how I found this guy in New York. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind turning into Santa. I went on a coffee date with Hare Krishnas…
I was going to ask if you've encountered any Christmas fetishists that this part would really turn you on.
There was a request from someone who was really convinced that I should expand to Christmas OnlyFans. And I realized very quickly that this guy was not right for me. So yeah, I met this guy. It was a very awkward conversation because I think he was completely serious about it.
However, you sound like you've had fun going through the process this year, as confusing as it might be for someone returning to the world of app-era dating.
I have to take a step back and laugh because the whole ridiculousness of dating these days is so different from what I remember dating back in the day when you'd go to a bar and then maybe get someone's number and start dating and then it was just that person until they disappeared. Now it doesn't even feel like a date; it's like a broken video game. The worst term we had back then was “fading out” on someone. Now we have compiling a registerwe have haloswe have submarinewe have breadcrumbswe have all sorts of stuff. Do you know how snow has a thousand names in Alaska? There are a thousand names in dating to indicate disinterest.
Wait, you'll have to explain some of these terms to someone who doesn't have experience in this field. “Ghosts” I understand, but what other ones did you mention?
“Lists” means people have more than one person that they randomly meet… “Submarine” isn't exactly a ghost thing where someone just attacks you like the Ghost of Christmas Past and just disappears with no explanation. Submarine is where they kind of dive into the depths of the ocean and you have no idea where they are, and then maybe a week or two weeks later they come back to the surface. It's like, “Hey, what happened? I was just in the ocean. Sorry, I couldn't talk to you. I was in the hole.”
Times have really changed…
And many of these profiles are created by artificial intelligence. Maybe I'll fall in love with robots.
Getting back to music, have you ever thought about taking a year off between releasing Christmas albums? Or will it ruin everything you do?
Never. What are you asking me now, 15 years later? You could ask me that eight years later.
Just wondering if there was ever a temptation to skip a year or, like in college, take a gap year.
I think the closest thing I had to a gap year was when I broke my spine and couldn't sing. I had a meeting with my musicians, co-producers and managers, and I told them that I physically could not stand because my left leg was paralyzed. and I couldn't even breathe. I didn't have diaphragm stability because I broke L1 to L5. I cried, and my daughter sat next to me and said: “No, mommy, I’ll help you sing.” And then my friend Dave Eggar, when I thought I might not be able to do anything this year, he said, “There’s no way.” We always figure it out. So my team around me reminds me, “No, Elizabeth, you have a greater purpose. You must tell your story every Christmas.” I really owe it to my friends in this business who remind me that at the end of the day, I am an artist, and as an artist, my point of view inspires me, and my inspiration comes through Christmas music. They constantly remind me that what I do is different and they keep this place for me and remind me not to not celebrate Christmas.
It's like if I asked you: are you going to miss Christmas this year? Have you ever missed Christmas?
You know, I haven't.
No. Right? So why do I need this? I mean I know I'm doing a little additional than you, but I'm not going to not celebrate Christmas and the way I celebrate Christmas is just the way I celebrate it is like, you know, creating new songs, coming up with new albums, introducing them to the world and telling your story one Christmas at a time. Why don't I want to do this?
I was late in thinking about the season and didn't turn on the lights until the 22nd.nd this year, but I feel like this conversation helped me turn a corner.
You see, my magical powers prevail. I'm sure you know that if you need reinforcements for Christmas, all you have to do is call and ask. I'm the Queen of Christmas. For example, I know some people.
