Afanasieff recalled his sentiments during initial discussions for a holiday record: "Back then, you didn't have a lot of artists with Christmas albums. It wasn't a known science at all back then, and there was nobody who did new, big Christmas songs. So we were going to release it as kind of an everyday, 'Hey, you know, we're putting out a Christmas album. No big deal.'" Ultimately, with Mottola's persistence, Carey and Afanasieff began writing and composing songs for its parent album, "Merry Christmas", during the summer of 1994. Carey began decorating the home she then shared with Mottola in upstate New York (which also came equipped with a personal recording studio) with Christmas ornaments and other holiday-inspired trinkets. In doing so, Carey felt she could capture the essence and spirit of what she was singing and make her vocal performance and delivery more emotive and authentic. "All I Want for Christmas Is You" was recorded that August, and took Carey and Afanasieff a total of fifteen minutes to write and compose.