The Official Top 40 biggest Christmas songs of the 21st century revealed

Which modern Christmas classic comes out on top?
Biggest Christmas Songs of the 21st Century

Each and every December, sure as sprouts are sprouts, the Official Singles Chart is flooded with festive favourites. But, whether it's Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody, Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You or Wham!'s Last Christmas, a lot of them are getting on a bit.

With all due respect, of course. They're seasonal staples with good reason.

But what about the more recent festive tunes slowly but surely earning their stripes as 'modern Christmas classics.' The likes of Justin Bieber's Mistletoe, Taylor Swift's Christmas Tree Farm and Katy Perry's Cozy Little Christmas? It's about time we unveiled the Official Top 40 biggest Christmas songs of the 21st century, no?

Let's go-ho-ho!

Michael Buble

MORE: 2023 Official Christmas Number 1 single contenders revealed

We can exclusively reveal that Michael Bublé's It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas is officially the biggest Christmas song of the 21st century.

Taking into account combined sales and streams of yuletide songs released this century, the track reaches the summit with a total of 1.9 million UK chart units; including an impressive 206 million UK streams.

This means Bublé beats out other modern festive hits by the likes of Ariana Grande, Kelly Clarkson and Leona Lewis.

A cover of the original 1951 track written by Meredith Wilson and since covered by the likes of Bing Crosby and Perry Como and The Fontane Sisters, Bublé's 2011 take on It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas reached a new peak of Number 6 on the Official Singles Chart in December 2022.

Its parent album Christmas, also released in 2011, remains a festive staple; having returned to its Number 1 peak in 2022.

Michael Bublé also boasts a further 12 songs in the Top 40 list, including Holly Jolly Christmas (8), Santa Claus is Coming to Town (15) and Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) (19).

Not far behind is Ariana Grande's perky pop original Santa Tell Me, written with frequent collaborators Savan Kotecha and Ilya Salmanzadeh, which comes in at Number 2 with 1.6 million UK chart units in total. Released in 2014, the song peaked at Number 11 on the Official Singles Chart in 2020.

Santa Tell Me has also racked up a total of 181 million streams in the UK so far.

Ariana Grande Santa Tell Me

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The highest-placing British act on the list is Lily Allen, whose twinkly cover of Keane's Somewhere Only We Know places at Number 3 with 1.5 million UK chart units.

The soundtrack to the 2014 John Lewis Christmas advert, Somewhere Only We Know reached Number 1 in the UK to become Lily's third (and most recent) chart-topper, and boasts UK streams of 104 million.

Elsewhere, Leona Lewis's Number 3-peaking One More Sleep, lifted from her 2013 LP Christmas, With Love is at Number 4 with 1.46 million UK chart units to date. And, rounding out the Top 5 at Number 5, Kelly Clarkson's 2013 track Underneath the Tree has earned a total of 1.37 million UK chart units since its release.

Other festive Top 40 highlights come courtesy of Kylie Minogue's Santa Baby (12) which is also Kylie's most-streamed track of all time in the UK, would you believe. Plus Ed Sheeran and Elton John's Merry Christmas (15), Britney Spears' My Only Wish (This Year) (26) and Destiny's Child's 8 Days of Christmas (32).

But where's your favourite modern Christmas track landed on the list?

The Official Top 40 biggest Christmas songs of the 21st century revealed:

The 2023 Official Christmas Number 1 race runs Friday 15 December through to Thursday 21 December. The winner will be unveiled on BBC Radio 1's The Official Chart  from 4pm, 22 December.

The full Top 100 Official Christmas Singles Chart and Official Christmas Albums Chart will be published on OfficialCharts.com from 5.45pm.

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