NEED TO KNOW
Kylie Minogue may have released her Christmas album a decade ago, but she wasn’t quite done with it just yet.
To commemorate the album’s 10th anniversary, the Australian pop star released Kylie Christmas (Fully Wrapped), a special 10th anniversary of her Kylie Christmas album, which features the LP’s timeless, tracks with a collection of new favorites that capture the warmth, glitter and glamour of the holidays.
The project, which was released on Friday, Dec. 12, features four new tracks including “Hot In December,” “This Time of Year,” “Office Party,” and the Amazon Music Original “XMAS.”
While the project was “ambitious” for Minogue, 57, following her Tension tour, she tells PEOPLE that it was “the perfect time” to honor her 2015 holiday album.
Here, she discusses the making of Kylie Christmas (Fully Wrapped), her holiday traditions and what her next album could potentially look like.
PEOPLE: What made you want to make a Christmas album 10 years ago?
KYLIE MINOGUE: Actually, good question. I’m not really sure. I think I’d just done Aphrodite, I toured Aphrodite, I toured Kiss Me Once…. I guess it just was a thought, and we said, “Hey, yeah, it’s time. Let’s do it.” Certainly when I did my cover of “Santa Baby” in 2001, I didn’t see a full Christmas album coming. The reason a lot of artists do it is it’s open to interpretation as to what’s your version of Christmas and seasonal songs.
But I can tell you this much. It was so much fun. It was just a beautiful, beautiful experience. And this time around, there’s one, lonely Christmas stocking decoration. But 10 years ago, we had the entire place decked out with decorations and life-size toy soldiers and full orchestra and choir, et cetera, et cetera.
PEOPLE: Amazing. Why was it important for you to commemorate the 10th anniversary of this record with Kylie Christmas (Fully Wrapped)?
MINOGUE: Because this record, or some of the songs on the original record, are in people’s homes and hearts, and it rolls around every year. It might’ve seemed like lunacy at the start of this year with a world tour on the horizon. Now that I finished my world tour, and I’m doing the work for this Christmas album, maybe it was ambitious, let’s say. But [the] 10th anniversary, it’s the perfect time.
PEOPLE: How did “XMAS” end up becoming one of the new songs on this deluxe edition?
MINOGUE: That particular song [was an] Amazon Exclusive, but that has been in my brain for 10 years. So, it was time to exorcize the song. “XMAS” was a chorus idea after a performance in 2015. So, I’d just done the whole shebang, recording the first album, but we went all out in July or something. After those sessions, I was with my band and dancers after another performance of something else, and my guitarist and I were mucking about doing “XMAS.” All we had, was “X-M-A-S, X-M-A-S.” And we thought, “Oh, there’s something in there.” It was a mission. We just [had] to flesh out this song, wrap it up in a bow, send it out. I knew that I just had to see it through.
I just came back from doing a few things today, and the guy on reception at one of the places was doing the “XMAS” dance to me. It’s wild that it’s been living in my head, and my guitarist’s head, for 10 years — and we got to finally do it. So, that was the gateway [for the deluxe edition of Kylie Christmas].
PEOPLE: How do you plan to celebrate Christmas this year?
MINOGUE: Family, family, family. That’s it. Me and my family, a few close friends. We always have a few ring-ins on Christmas. I’m going to rest, take stock, be thankful, and then workshop my way toward 2026.
PEOPLE: Do you have a favorite holiday tradition?
MINOGUE: Just hanging out with the family. Because it’s summer in Australia, they’re really long, hot days, and the kids are all on school holidays. They have a five or six-week break then. I wouldn’t say there’s one tradition. Maybe cricket in the backyard, jumping in the pool, getting the barbecue on. I mean, those things all seem pretty normal to me, but I guess not to everyone else.
PEOPLE: So obviously we touched on “XMAS,” but how did you decide to add the other three songs to this version of the album? Were any of them recorded years ago, or were outtakes?
MINOGUE: There’s a story for all of them. “Hot in December,” which is a total banger, the incredible Sarah Hudson sent that to me about four years ago. It was like, “Hey, babe, you need a Christmas song? What do you think of this?” At the time, I didn’t need a Christmas song, but I said, “That’s just a great tune.” And I wondered, “If you took the Christmas out of that, would that just be a great song?” which is probably still true. But this time around, I just said, “Hey, is that song still there?” So it was. We got to workshop that in our sessions over here in London. It’s a bonafide bop.
“Office Party,” I’m sure you’ve seen the U.S. version of The Office, which originated here in the U.K. Part of that was, what’s that kind of office party like and having fun with those lyrics. Finally, “This Time of Year” is the real mushy, emotional, very sentimental version. We didn’t aim to do four very different tracks, that was more a case of us just changing the pace up in the studio when you reach a bit of a lull working on one song or you need to step away.
PEOPLE: Do you ever envision yourself making another holiday album?
MINOGUE: Let’s see how I get through this one. Probably. I could imagine maybe doing something slightly different with what I have. Maybe doing a full orchestral version of all songs, strip it back, do an intimate performance, and have that as another album.
To get four [songs] done in this small amount of time that I had more or less between continents this year was all we had time for, but I’d say there’s two others that we’d love to flesh out at some point.
PEOPLE: We’ve had Tension I and Tension II. Are you working on Tension III to release next?
MINOGUE: I’m literally on a tilt as you ask that. I think we could do Tension III, but I need a rest before any of that. I think it’d be moving on to something fresh and different next. I’m sure it’s no surprise that there’s already thoughts, and perhaps a little time in studio that’s gone into that so far. I don’t think it will be Tension III. It’ll be something else.
But Tension I and Tension II gave and gave and gave. At the end of this year, I will really be giving thanks to this era because it’s been a wild ride since “Padam Padam.” I’m thinking of my Vegas residency, which I investigated and signed up for before “Padam Padam” even came out. It’s been fruitful, fun, pretty exhausting, but very rewarding.
PEOPLE: You’ve had a huge year with the Tension Tour. What was your favorite moment from the tour?
MINOGUE: Oh, it’s hard to pick one moment. I’m speaking to you in the States, and two sold-out nights at Madison Square Garden was mind-blowing and as amazing as everyone said it would be, so that will definitely be a standout. The concert felt really different. It really felt like togetherness. That line between on stage and not on stage … we broke that line a lot, which was my intention.
So in every place that could accommodate this, having the C-stage out in the audience and traipsing through the audience to “The Loco-motion” and ending up right in the center of everything and the disco ball coming down…it just felt we were all united. My takeaway is that everyone felt a real solidarity, even if they’d never met each other before.
PEOPLE: Is there a sonic direction you haven’t explored that you’d like to in the future?
MINOGUE: I’ve touched [on] lots of different genres. But I’ve always joked that “Thrash Metal Kylie’s” probably not going to be unleashed from any place anytime soon. I quite like an indie-folk playlist, just something that’s quite mellow and tuneful. I mean, I didn’t give myself this moniker, but the “Indie Kylie” period, I think there’s something to be explored with a little seasoning.
I won’t say too much more. That’s not a place I haven’t been to before, but a place that I guess I normally try to touch on most albums. We could say “Padam Padam” had something of that because it was a risk or something, like slow. Even “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” was really different. Now that those songs were hits, it’s easy to say, “Oh, yeah, of course that was a hit.” But I think they all involved an element of risk and trying to make the right call, and giving some space on the album for some experimentation.
