Promotion for the album included a Christmas special of the same title, which premiered on NBC on December 1, 2021. The Christmas special premiered with a 0.6 rating and 4.3 million total viewers.[2][3] A deluxe reissue of the album featuring two new tracks was released on November 1, 2024, including the single "You for Christmas".[4]
Background and recording
"My purpose for choosing this lyric as the title of this project was to bring forth a sense of reality to the fact that we are probably in very different places emotionally When Christmas Comes Around... Some of us are consumed with a new love, some of us reminded of loss, some filled with optimism for the coming new year, others elated for some much deserved time away from the chaos our work lives can sometimes bring us. Wherever you are, and whatever you may be experiencing, I wanted everyone to be able to connect to a message on this album. Each year you may even have a new favorite depending on where you are in your life, but while change can be unpredictable there is no better time of year, in my opinion, to breathe hope into one’s life and let possibility wander."
—Clarkson on naming the album When Christmas Comes Around...[5]
Atlantic Records has promoted When Christmas Comes Around... as an exploration of "a wide range of holiday emotions and experiences anchored by Clarkson's incomparable vocal prowess".[6] Clarkson has elaborated that the album will explore various themes of love, loss, hope, and optimism — emotions that people tend to experience during the holiday season.[5][7]
Drawing inspiration from her experiences during the past two years, she remarked of the album's title, her first to not have a titular track since My December (2007), as "when Christmas comes around, we are all in different places." Further adding that its selection of tracks will both evoke a somber and posit a jolly atmosphere. Characterizing it as "a different Christmas album", she portrayed When Christmas Comes Around... as feeling more like a normal studio album, but "there's Christmas sprinkled on it."[7]
Release
When Christmas Comes Around... was released by Atlantic Records on October 15, 2021.[7] A special edition shipped exclusively to Target retail stores would also feature a Christmas card signed by Clarkson.[8] Its lead single "Christmas Isn't Canceled (Just You)", was released on September 23, 2021.[9] "Glow" with Stapleton and "Santa, Can't You Hear Me" with Grande were released as promotional singles alongside the album's release.[10][11] The deluxe reissue of the album was released on November 1, 2024.[4]
In a roundup of new holiday albums, The New York Times music critic Jon Caramanica praised Clarkson's "nimble" vocals and wrote that the original tracks, some of them strikingly "uncelebratory," make the album stand out.[14] In the year-end episode of his Times podcast Popcast, Caramanica again praised the album, calling it "very, very good [...] solid [and] impressive," though "not quite Mariah-level."[15] Mike DeWald of Riff Magazine praised how Clarkson's original songs are "something fresh and listenable."[16] Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine, who gave the album three-and-a-half out of five stars, criticized some production choices but praised Clarkson's "impressive" vocals and "melodic variations" on the classics as the "chief selling point."[13]
Marcy Donelson of AllMusic gave the album three out of five stars, called it "a vibrant, fully orchestral, high-volume set on average", and singled out "Merry Christmas (To the One I Used to Know)" and "Santa, Can't You Hear Me" as highlights among the newest tracks."[12]Vulture's Justin Curto called Clarkson "the queen of the holidays", calling the album a gift for Christmas. Curto especially appreciated the collaboration with Ariana Grande, as it sounds "as majestic as you would expect from the two singers."[17] Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine found that while the original songs on When Christmas Comes Around... "don't quite live up to the lofty bar she previously set" on Wrapped in Red, the album "juxtaposes the yuletide blues with jubilant holiday standards," further noting that "Clarkson's vocals, then, are the album’s chief selling point."[13]
