It's December 2nd, and dammit, that means I can play "All I Want for Christmas is You" to my heart's desire for the next 23 days, OK?! I won't entertain anything against this modern-day classic, whose magic can make Jimmy Fallon palatable, nay, pleasant even.

In recent times, there's been a certain type of backlash against this beautiful song, and I'm here today to say: not on my watch. Is it (slightly, ever so slightly) overplayed? Possibly. You know what, though? It beats that shit that Pentatonix pushes out every year, and it certainly beats whatever Mannheim Steamroller dreamed up in their dungeon of synthesized horrors that we all had to pretend was cutting edge back in the '90s, and which is still haunting us while we shop at Target to this day. The main difference between "All I Want For Christmas is You" and those monstrosities mentioned above? This song is catchy as hell.

Now, you may be asking yourself, "Is this Kate's favorite Christmas song?!" and to that I say, it is not, but it's definitely top 10. Maybe even top 5. The number one song, is obviously this one because it's all of ours, yes?

Yes. (Side note: I know if I've tied it on too heavily the morning after, if I have listened to the summer version of this song, the night before. Yes, there's a summer version. Or I guess you'd call it a non-Christmas version if you're possibly not me, which presumably everyone else reading this is not. I'll share below.)

We're getting off track here, though. We're not here to talk about Darlene Love, who is a G-D legend. No, we're here today to defend a song that you may think doesn't need defending because it is everywhere. It's even a plot point in Love, Actually:

It does need defending, though, because there's a backlash against it (I use Twitter, and I can read, so ha!) which I will not stand for.

For those among us who do scoff at the love for this evergreen classic, I ask: would it help you appreciate the song more if you knew that Mariah Carey wrote and produced the damn thing herself, at the age of 24(ish? Apparently we're not totally sure of Mariah Carey's age, per Wikipedia.) What were you naysayers of "All I Want for Christmas is You" among us doing at that age? Unless the answer is writing an equally beloved Christmas anthem, I hope you take the all the seats, kind Sirs and Madams.

I need to wrap this up, not because I've run out of things to say, but because my frozen pizza is ready. I will leave you with this final thought: Isn't life a little more fun, with this song played (a lot) during the Christmas season?

via GIPHY