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The 20 greatest Christmas songs, ranked
26 November 2024, 14:43 | Updated: 26 November 2024, 14:45
We round up a few handfuls of the best Christmas music of all time.
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Christmas is a time for family, celebration, incredible food and even better music.
Beyond the traditional carols, over the decades some of the biggest artists have made some wonderful hit singles for the season.
- 'Mary's Boy Child – Oh My Lord' by Boney M: The making of the masterful Christmas mashup
- How Elvis Presley made the biggest-selling Christmas album of all time
- Listen to the Gold Radio Christmas Classics Live Playlist on Global Player, the home of Gold
But what are the stars at the very top of the tree?
Below we've rounded up and ranked 20 of the very best Christmas songs of all time.
Can you guess what we've got as our Christmas number one?
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Dean Martin - Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
Dean Martin - Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! (Official Video)
Truthfully you could make a top 20+ just of swinging Christmas songs, but we wanted to give the other songs a chance!
Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne's 'Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!' has been performed by a few big banders, including Frank Sinatra, but Dean Martin's take is most swinging of the lot, so it gets the nod. -
Elton John - Step Into Christmas
Elton John - Step Into Christmas
A US seasonal chart-topper and decent sized UK hit too, Elton John's 'Step Into Christmas' seemed to be forgotten for a few years, but has rightly roared back into contention of late.
Recorded around the time of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and shares that album's rollocking rock 'n' roll vibes an its quality, too.
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Queen - Thank God It's Christmas
Queen - Thank God It's Christmas (Official Lyric Video)
Another Christmas song from one of the biggest artists of all time that doesn't get as much love as it deserves or you'd expect.
Written by Brian May and Roger Taylor, Queen's stab at Christmas glory only peaked at number 21 in the charts, but like Elton's track is climbing up those evergreen rankings.
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Bing Crosby and David Bowie - Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy
Bing Crosby, David Bowie - Peace On Earth / Little Drummer Boy
One of the strangest of seasonal duets. An old, frail, but still supreme Bing Crosby joining forces with David Bowie at his most strung out.
It shouldn't work at all, but this twist on the traditional 'Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy' works its Christmas magic every year.
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Jona Lewie - Stop The Cavalry
Jona Lewie - Stop The Cavalry
Speaking of Peace on Earth, 'Stop The Cavalry' is a bleak anti-war missive turned into a Christmas hit.
Jona Lewie wrote this protest song written with the fear of a nuclear winter in his soul - something we've sadly not seen the last of.
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Brenda Lee - Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree
Brenda Lee - Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree (Official Music Video)
Brenda Lee finally topped the US Christmas charts with 'Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree' in 2023, thanks to a snazzy new music video.
She was just 13 when she recorded this absolute classic that never fails to get everyone in the Christmas mood.
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Chris De Burgh - A Spaceman Came Travelling
Chris De Burgh - A Spaceman Came Travelling (Stereo)
Plenty of songs on this list are about the trappings of the season - snow, Santa, celebrations.
Chris De Burgh's 'A Spaceman Came Travelling' is about aliens observing the birth of Jesus, because hey why not!
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Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas
Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas? (Official Video) [4K]
The 40th anniversary megamix is quite the technical marvel (even if it does totally write Band Aid II out of history), but the original still stands up.
Band Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas' gets some grief for being parochial and patriarchal, but given the speedy turnaround and squeezing in of a-list talent, it's actually a pretty remarkable achievement, and one that raised a decent amount of money, too.
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Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime
Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime
Maybe the second-most divisive song in Paul McCartney's back catalogue, after 'We All Stand Together'.
But don't listen to the Grinches out there. 'Wonderful Christmastime' is a top notch bit of synth powered Macca loveliness that wouldn't be out of place on McCartney II.
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Mud - Lonely This Christmas
Mud - Lonely This Christmas (Official Video)
Maybe we should have picked Elvis Presley's classic 'Blue Christmas' for this list, but it just failed to make the cut.
In some ways, we've got the King covered with Mud's 'Lonely this Christmas', a tribute to Presley with a Brit glam edge and wave of melancholy.
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Eartha Kitt - Santa Baby
Eartha Kitt - Santa Baby (Official Music Video)
Simply the sexiest Christmas song in the whole canon.
Kylie Minogue, Mariah Carey and the rest all owe a massive debt to Eartha Kitt's saucy slice of seasonal sultriness.
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Shakin' Stevens - Merry Christmas Everyone
Shakin' Stevens - Merry Christmas Everyone (Official 4K Video)
Shakin' Stevens held back 'Merry Christmas Everyone' for a whole year, so frightened was he of the chart competition.
It was a smart move, as not only did it top the charts on its eventual release, it's become an enduring Christmas smash.
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Chris Rea - Driving Home for Christmas
Chris Rea - Driving Home For Christmas (Official Lyric Video)
So many seasonal songs present an idealised, Christmas card version of reality.
Not Chris De Burgh, who captures that feeling of well, driving home for Christmas in one hell of a tailback, the frustration eased away by the knowledge that you're coming home to the ones you love.
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John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Happy Xmas (War is Over)
HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER). (Ultimate Mix, 2020) John & Yoko Plastic Ono Band + Harlem Community Choir
John Lennon and Yoko Ono recorded some of the best music in pop history, but one of their most beautiful pieces was this Christmas cracker.
Recorded with the Harlem Community Choir, 'Happy Xmas (War is Over)' is a peace anthem that's gently pleading without being preachy.
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Greg Lake - I Believe in Father Christmas
Greg Lake - I Believe In Father Christmas (Official 4K Video)
A melancholy festive classic 'I Believe in Father Christmas' is one of the sadder Christmas songs.
It's a quietly beautiful pushback against the commercialisation of the season through the eyes of an innocent child.
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Darlene Love - Christmas (Please Come Home)
Darlene Love - All Alone On Christmas (Official Video)
A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector) often wins the "Best Christmas Album" plaudits, and its crowning glory is Darlene Love's 'Christmas (Please Come Home)'.
Written by Spector with Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich and powered by Love's incredible vocals, it surpassed all of the already-classic songs on the rest of the record.
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Wham! - Last Christmas
Wham! - Last Christmas (Official Video)
So ever-present at the Christmas season, people have even made the Whamageddon game in acknowledgement of how hard 'Last Christmas' is to avoid.
But it's a game that is a pleasure to lose, because it's among Wham!'s very best songs, and you don't get much higher praise than that.
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Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday (Official Music Video) [HD]
'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday' was the runner-up in 1973's battle of the glam Christmas bangers, but Roy Wood and Wizzard shouldn't be too downcast about that.
It's still managed to completely establish itself as a Christmas classic in its own right, from that cheeky cash register intro onwards.
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Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody
Slade – Merry Xmas Everybody (Official Top Of The Pops Video)
One of the only songs worthy of pushing Wizzard into second place, Slade's 'Merry Xmas Everybody' is the ultimate Christmas party song.
It's got enough giddy festive spirit to melt the coldest of hearts, while perfectly capturing the heady mix of nostalgia, joy and memory that the season evokes.
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The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York
The Pogues - Fairytale Of New York (Official Video)
Forget the (boring) debate over some of its more controversial lyrics and focus on one of the most beautiful, tender and heartbreaking songs of all time, Christmas or otherwise.
'Fairytale of New York' is a timeless masterpiece. A journey of a song that explores the meaning of love and life through the prism of its two tragic characters.
