Christmas & Chill

Christmas & Chill is the second Christmas record and extended play (EP) by American singer Ariana Grande. It was released on December 18, 2015 by Republic Records as a follow-up to her 2013 Christmas EP Christmas Kisses and her 2014 Christmas single "Santa Tell Me".[1] The EP features six, original, R&B-inspired Christmas tracks produced by American producers Tommy Brown, Mr. Franks, The Magi, and Travis Sayles. Grande has continuously expressed admiration and has referred to it as her "favorite body of work".[2]

Christmas & Chill
EP by
Ariana Grande
ReleasedDecember 18, 2015 (2015-12-18)
RecordedDecember 2015
Genre
Length13:10
LabelRepublic
Producer
Ariana Grande chronology
The Remix
(2015)		 Christmas & Chill
(2015)		 Dangerous Woman
(2016)
Alternative cover
Japanese reissue cover

The EP received favorable reviews from music critics. It debuted at number 34 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and at number 3 on the Billboard Holiday Albums ranking in the United States.[3] The EP sold 35,000 copies in its first week of release in the US and has sold over 180,000 copies worldwide.[4][5] Christmas & Chill was originally only available as a digital download, but on November 18, 2016, the EP was reissued on CD in Japan with a new artwork.[6][7] The EP gained renewed interest when it was reissued as vinyl LPs in November 2019, including "Santa Tell Me" as a hidden track.[8][9][10]

Recording and music

According to Tommy Brown, the EP was recorded in four days at Ariana Grande's home studio, in Hollywood.[11] Songwriting credits are shared by Grande with Brown.[12] For Rolling Stone's Brittany Spanos, the EP consists of "romantic Christmas ballads over trap beats", commenting that "the one song to stand out from the more R&B-leaning EP is the folky 'Winter Things', where the acoustic track resembles Jason Mraz, as Grande sings 'My baby's in town and we're gonna do some winter things'.".[13]

Critical reception

Jaleesa M. Jones in USA Today called it "a festive ode to winter romance."[14] Emma Garland from Noisey said the album "basically sounds like a Cassie album ... but with sleigh bells and lyrics like 'tis the season for some love giving!' It's basically the perfect festive romp."[15] Two years after its release, MTV's Sydney Gore and Brian Anthony Hernandez revisited the EP, calling it "a new holiday classic" and "a catalyst of original Christmas carols for the so-called doomed millennial generation. ...[T]his EP has the power to melt any trace of snow that's piling up on your front porch. ... There's a playful, eflish energy about ["True Love"] that makes you want to hang mistletoe everywhere to secure a smooch with that special someone."[16]

Billboard ranked the EP as one of the Best Christmas Albums of the 21st Century "Grande’s second holiday EP eschews traditional sounds of the season, opting instead for contemporary R&B grooves, trap synths and punny innuendo [...] Despite some sleigh bells and a few tossed-off references to the North Pole, this isn’t your parents’ holiday fare."[17]

Track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Intro"
  • Brown
  • Sayles
  • Mr. Franks
  • The Magi
1:05
2."Wit It This Christmas"
  • Grande
  • McCants
  • Brown
  • Sayles
  • Foster
  • Tedder
  • Peter Lee Johnson
  • Brown
  • Sayles
  • Mr. Franks
  • The Magi
2:41
3."December"
  • Grande
  • McCants
  • Brown
  • Sayles
  • Franks
  • Foster
  • Tedder
  • Brown
  • Sayles
  • Mr. Franks
  • The Magi
1:56
4."Not Just on Christmas"
  • Grande
  • McCants
  • Brown
  • Sayles
  • Franks
  • Johnson
  • Brown
  • Sayles
2:02
5."True Love"
  • Grande
  • McCants
  • Brown
  • Sayles
  • Franks
  • Foster
  • Tedder
  • Johnson
  • Brown
  • Sayles
  • Mr. Franks
  • The Magi
2:46
6."Winter Things"
  • Grande
  • McCants
  • Brown
  • Sayles
  • Franks
  • Johnson
  • Brown
  • Sayles
2:38
Total length:13:10
Japanese CD bonus track[6]
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
7."Into You" (Alex Ghenea Remix) (featuring Mac Miller)
  • Ilya
  • Martin
  • Alex Ghenea[a]
3:38
Total length:16:48
LP Version hidden track
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
7."Santa Tell Me"
  • Grande
  • Kotecha
  • Ilya
Ilya3:24
Total length:16:34
  • ^[a] denotes a remixer

Charts
Chart (2015–20) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[18] 49
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[19] 43
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[20] 30
US Billboard 200[21] 34
US Holiday Albums (Billboard)[22] 3

References
  1. "Christmas & Chill - EP", iTunes, December 18, 2015
  2. Grande, Ariana (November 10, 2019). "oh my god. my favorite body of work. she is rising from the dead ! thank u new listeners of christmas n chill and hello everyone that is just now discovering it. i'm so happy". Twitter. Archived from the original on November 23, 2021. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  3. "Holiday Albums : Page 1". Billboard. Retrieved December 23, 2018.
  4. "Ask Billboard: Ariana Grande's Sales, Kelly Clarkson's Streak & … Bernie Sanders' Sales, Too". Billboard. March 27, 2016. Retrieved February 26, 2019.
  5. "Christmas & Chill by Ariana Grande on Google Play Music".
  6. "アリアナ・グランデ、日本のファンに贈るクリスマスミニアルバムを11月リリース". Billboard Japan (in Japanese). October 7, 2016. Retrieved October 7, 2016.
  7. "CDJapan: Christmas & Chill by Ariana Grande". Cdjapan.co.jp. Retrieved October 10, 2016.
  8. Jasmine Ting (November 10, 2019). "Ariana Grande's 'Christmas & Chill' Is Done Hibernating". Paper. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
  9. Rachel Handler (November 11, 2019). "Let's Talk About Ariana Grande's Extremely Horny Christmas Album". Vulture. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
  10. Laura Stavropoulos (November 15, 2019). "Ariana Grande Releases All Five Studio Albums And Christmas EP On Colour Vinyl". uDiscoverMusic. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
  11. "Instagram". Archived from the original on January 4, 2017. Retrieved December 24, 2016.
  12. "AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
  13. Spanos, Brittany. "Hear Ariana Grande's Surprise-Released EP 'Christmas & Chill'", Rolling Stone magazine, December 17, 2015
  14. "Ariana Grande wants to 'Christmas & chill' on new EP", USA Today, December 18, 2015
  15. Garland, Emma. "Ariana Grande's Christmas & Chill Is the Perfect Festive Romp" Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Noisey, December 18, 2015
  16. Gore, Sydney and Brian Anthony Hernandez. "Let's Talk About How Ariana Grande’s Christmas & Chill EP Is a New Holiday Classic", MTV, December 6, 2017
  17. Cinquemani, Sal (December 8, 2022). "The 21 Best Christmas Albums of the 21st Century". Billboard. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  18. [EP&cat=a "Australiancharts.com – Ariana Grande – Christmas & Chill [EP]"]. Hung Medien. Retrieved December 26, 2015.
  19. "Ariana Grande Chart History (Canadian Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  20. [EP&cat=a "Swedishcharts.com – Ariana Grande – Christmas & Chill [EP]"]. Hung Medien. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  21. "Ariana Grande Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  22. "Ariana Grande Album & Song Chart History: Holiday Albums". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
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