Kylie Minogue On Holiday Traditions & Her New Christmas Album

Kylie Minogue is back with another album for the holidays — but she’s already thinking ahead to Christmas album No. 3. “There’s another couple [songs] we’ve got; they’ll be on the shelf until next time,” Minogue tells NYLON.

This approach already seems to be working well for Minogue: Kylie Christmas (Fully Wrapped), an updated version of her 2015 Christmas project, features all of the great holiday classics that graced the first record, as well as four new tracks including the Amazon Music Original “Xmas,” a jolly ol’ banger that’s been “living rent-free” in the singer’s head for 10 years. “[Kylie Christmas] was finished, and my guitarist and I, we were just mucking around and had this idea,” she says. “And [I] thought, “‘Oh, well, let’s work on that another time.’”

But before she gets back to the studio, Minogue needs some time to reflect on the year that was. “I don’t know that I’ve ever really had it this strongly before to take stock of the year,” she says. “The Christmas album, this Fully Wrapped [version], is in many ways, the icing on the cake of an incredible 2025 for me.”

To celebrate the new album, we caught up with the Aussie superstar over Zoom to talk all things Christmas and her plans for 2026.

You just released a new version of your Christmas album 10 years after its initial release. What made you want to revisit this project?

I think the 10th anniversary of Kylie Christmas was the perfect time. It’s been an incredible year. And it’s so fun to be in the studio and explore Christmas again with three people I adore. I don’t think any of us really consider it work. We just love making music together.

I feel like people view Christmas albums as easy cash grabs. But in reality, there are a lot of challenges that come with recording holiday music, whether it be trying to cover a song that’s been covered a million times already or making a holiday song completely from scratch and trying to get into that niche. How do you approach recording a Christmas album?

First time around, we were pretty traditional. I mean, I guess whoever’s voice it is, that’s your voice, so that is you. And I think that, much like when musicians do standards or show tunes or anything, the song is the song, and it is what it is. How do you interpret it where there’s a point of difference, but you haven’t turned the rudder so far that it’s unrecognizable?

But this time with doing these new songs, it didn’t feel like a pressure. We started in March [like], “Hey, if we run out of steam or it doesn’t have legs, we haven’t really committed to it.”

When you’re writing new Christmas songs, are you concerned with trying to be among the best of the best Christmas songs? Or is this just for the true Kylie heads?

Oh, both. That’s a high bar, the best of the best. But I’ll find a midway ground and say I wanted to do the best Kylie Christmas songs that I could. And because I’m such a chameleon and really don’t commit to one thing, the four new songs, they all completely inhabit their own space, but they work together.

It’s currently summer in Australia right now. How do you get yourself in the Christmas spirit?

Easy. I grew up with Australian Christmases. Explaining them to people who have never had a hot Christmas is lots of fun. They’re just baffled. I say, “It’s bikinis, board shorts, and barbecue.”

Do you and your family have any holiday traditions?

I don’t know that we have a tradition, but I suppose there are traditions that I don’t think of. I just don’t term them as that. But every year, there’s the barbecue. There’s no Christmas without the barbecue. Everyone’s outside, and you can’t have too many cooks near the barbecue. One person’s doing it.

Someone brings a Pavlova. Yes, we have crackers. Yes, you’ve got to put the paper crown on your head. It doesn’t matter how ridiculous you feel. That’s just how it is. More recently, we would often have a Scrabble board out. We’ve kind of segued to jigsaws now, like a big jigsaw puzzle. It took four years to finish the last one. So we’re starting this Christmas with a box-fresh jigsaw puzzle that will live on a table, and whoever passes by adds a piece, spends some time on it. I think that will become a tradition going forward.

Is there a song among the new four songs that is particularly special or sentimental to you?

Oh, that’s really hard to ask me. They’re so different. I can’t choose one. “Xmas” was an idea from when we wrapped the first Christmas album. So I feel very emotionally attached to that because it’s been a long time and turned out to be a bop.

“This Time Of Year” is obviously very sentimental. I really wanted to have the balance of it feeling emotional, but to the right degree not to have you lose it. Because I just have it like, this is emotional, but I’m hugging you at the same time.

I haven’t heard a song like [“Office Party”] before. We just were cracking up in the studio. And the fact that we got to keep the photocopier sound effect at the end, we were like, “Someone’s missed the email because, surely, how did we get away with this?”

And then “Hot in December” is an absolute bop, and that came about through my friendship with Sarah Hudson, who’s an amazing writer who I’ve worked with. She sent that to me a few years ago when I didn’t need a Christmas song, but it’s kind of been just waiting in the wings for a number of years. So that’s got its own little history as well. So I literally can’t choose one.

With the end of the year coming up, is there anything you’re manifesting for 2026? Anything you’re looking forward to?

Oh, 100%. It’s been an absolutely gigantic year. I am so grateful, so thankful, and so amazed by… Well, I could group the past three years together, really, since Tension, Tension II, the Tension Tour, putting it all in a bow with a Fully Wrapped album. So my little inner voice for next year would be about taking care of myself so that I can do it all again.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.