Hilary Duff Holiday Things EP Is Out Today With 3 Original Songs
The five track Christmas EP arrived Friday, Oct. 23, with three original songs Duff co-wrote, a new version of Last Christmas and a classic cover, 24 years after Santa Claus Lane.
Key points
- Christmas music season opened early on Friday.
- The three originals are All You Want for Christmas is Me, I Want (A Few Small Things) and I Guess It's Christmas.
- Physical copies follow later.
Christmas music season opened early on Friday. Hilary Duff released Holiday Things, a five track EP, on Friday, Oct. 23, with three original songs she co-wrote and new versions of two seasonal standards, Just Jared reported on release day. The record is her first Christmas release since Santa Claus Lane in 2002, a gap of 24 years.
What is on the EP
The three originals are All You Want for Christmas is Me, I Want (A Few Small Things) and I Guess It's Christmas. Alongside them sits a new recording of Last Christmas, the Wham! song Duff first recorded for Santa Claus Lane, and a reworked version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, RetroPop reported when the track list was published. Reports list the five songs in different orders, but the contents agree across outlets.
Physical copies follow later. The EP is available on CD and vinyl on Dec. 11, RetroPop reported, while the digital release is out now.
What Duff said about it
Announcing and then releasing the EP, Duff described a love of the season with limits. She wrote on Instagram that everyone who knows her knows she loves Christmas and also has a complicated relationship with it, listing traditions, music, decorations, sweaters and gingerbread houses among the parts she lives for. She added that she also likes the season concentrated, packed back in her attic by Jan. 1, and told fans to listen hard now and pack the record away until next year, Just Jared reported.
Billboard's account, carried by Europe Says, noted the announcement line she posted on Oct. 21: I guess Christmas came early, with the EP dated for Friday, Oct. 23.
A busy comeback year
Holiday Things lands in the middle of a full return to music. Duff released luck... or something in February, her first album in 11 years, followed by an EP of re-recorded versions of her earlier hits. She recently released CATastrophe for The Cat in the Hat soundtrack. Her Lucky Me Tour has been extended through November 2027, and she is set to play select dates on the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour while currently touring in Australia, Just Jared reported.
The timing explains the search spike. Duff appeared in this morning's US Google Trends list off the back of the announcement coverage, and Friday is the day the searches turn into streams. A Christmas record in October is a familiar music business move: the songs need weeks in playlists before December arrives, and this one arrives with three new originals instead of covers alone.