Christmas & Chill
2015 EP by Ariana Grande
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". 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 expressed admiration and has referred to it as her "favorite body of work".
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. It opened with 35,000 album equivalent units in its first week of release in the US, and has sold over 180,000 copies worldwide. Christmas & Chill was originally only available on streaming and as a digital download, but on November 18, 2016, the EP was released digitally and on CD in Japan with new artwork and the Alex Ghenea remix of "Into You", as an exclusive bonus track.
The EP gained renewed interest when it was reissued as a vinyl record in November 2019, featuring the naughty version of "Santa Tell Me" as a hidden track, which later was added to a digital reissue of the EP worldwide in 2023.
01Recording and music
According to Tommy Brown, the EP was recorded in four days at Ariana Grande's home studio, in Hollywood. Songwriting credits are shared by Grande with Brown. 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'".
02Critical reception
Jaleesa M. Jones in USA Today called it "a festive ode to winter romance." 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." 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."
Billboard ranked the EP as one of the Best Christmas Albums of the 21st Century, stating: "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."
03Track listing
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Intro" |
|
| 1:05 |
| 2. | "Wit It This Christmas" |
|
| 2:41 |
| 3. | "December" |
|
| 1:56 |
| 4. | "Not Just on Christmas" |
|
| 2:02 |
| 5. | "True Love" |
|
| 2:46 |
| 6. | "Winter Things" |
|
| 2:38 |
| Total length: | 13:10 | |||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7. | "Into You" (Alex Ghenea remix; featuring Mac Miller) |
| 4:10 | |
| Total length: | 17:20 | |||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7. | "Santa Tell Me" (Naughty version) |
| Ilya | 3:24 |
| Total length: | 16:34 | |||
- ^[a] denotes a remixer
04Charts
| Chart (2015-2025) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA) | 49 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) | 73 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) | 168 |
| Canadian Albums (Billboard) | 43 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) | 53 |
| Latvian Albums (LaIPA) | 94 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) | 30 |
| US Billboard 200 | 34 |
| US Top Holiday Albums (Billboard) | 3 |
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Christmas & Chill”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Christmas and Chill.jpg by Unknown author, Fair use
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