 In an interview for Rap @-@ Up in April 2010 , Jermaine Dupri said that he and Carey had already begun working on new songs , stating " The song of the decade crew is back in the lab . This [ is ] the first day of the new shit . " On April 24 , David LaChapelle said that he had shot the album artwork with fake snow and wooden cutout reindeers , thus confirming that the project was a Christmas album . On May 5 , Dupri confirmed that he and Carey were in the early stages of production for the album , that Bryan @-@ Michael Cox and Johntá Austin were involved in the project and that they hoped to release a single by the end of the year . Roger Friedman of Showbiz411 revealed some information about the album on June 3 , 2010 , saying " Mariah ’ s Christmas album is said to be very lush , with lots of strings and no hip hop . A lot of it is said to be ' live ' and there ’ s an ochestra " and would feature a new version of her 1994 Christmas single , " All I Want for Christmas Is You " . It was reported by Showbiz411 in August 2010 that Carey had enlisted Broadway composer Marc Shaiman to work on the then untitled album ; the magazine described the pairing as " unusual " but noted that the outcome could be " colossal " . On September 1 , 2010 , Rap @-@ Up exclusively revealed the title of the album , Merry Christmas II You , and that it would be released on November 2 with original songs as well as covers . The II represents being a sequel to Carey 's first Christmas album , Merry Christmas ( 1994 ) . 
