The Official Top 20 biggest selling Christmas albums of the century

07 December 2016 | By Justin Myers

 

We count down the top artist festive collections since 2000 – who's top of the tree?

 

We all have our favourite Christmas songs we return to year after year, but for the hardcore Yuletide nut, only a full Christmas album with fresh renditions of festive standards and new future favourites will do.

 

Few artists are brave enough to tackle a Christmas album, but of those that do, who's been filling stockings and soundtracking magic gift-giving moments the most this century? We're counting down the top selling festive artists collections of the 21st century, so far…

 

When it comes to Christmas album sales, the star at the very top of the tree is twinkly-eyed crooner Michael Bublé. His seasonal set – entitled Christmas, just so there was no room for doubt – is the ONLY album with the word "Christmas" in the title to be the Number 1 album at Christmastime. It spent three non-consecutive weeks at the top on its release in 2011, and has returned to the Top 10 every year since – and that includes this year, already!

 

Christmas has sold a whopping 2.4 million copies in the UK, and has spent almost six months in the Top 10 in total over the last five years.

 

Over to another favourite crooner, Rod Stewart takes second place with his 2012 collection Merry Christmas Baby. Plus, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Sir Cliff, and he's up in third with the aptly named Cliff At Christmas, originally released in 2003.

 

The King of Rock n Roll takes up a majestic pair of places in the Top 20 best selling Christmas Albums. Elvis's Christmas Peace takes fifth position and Christmas Wishes sneaks in at 20.

 

It may have been released back in 1994, but Mariah Carey's Merry Christmas is still a strong-seller in the 2000s – the album, which includes million-selling All I Want For Christmas is You – is sixth.

 

There are good showings from festive sets from Charlotte Church (9) and Susan Boyle (10) and pop princesses Leona Lewis and Kylie Minogue also make it into the sparkling rundown with their recent seasonal releases – Christmas With Love and Kylie Christmas park their sleighs at 13 and 14.

 

Here's the full Official Top 20 biggest selling Christmas albums:

 

1 CHRISTMAS MICHAEL BUBLE 2011 2,443,000

2 MERRY CHRISTMAS BABY ROD STEWART 2012 600,000+

3 CLIFF AT CHRISTMAS CLIFF RICHARD 2003

4 ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS PARTY JIVE BUNNY & THE MASTERMIXERS 2003

5 CHRISTMAS PEACE ELVIS PRESLEY 2008

6 MERRY CHRISTMAS MARIAH CAREY 1994

7 MY CHRISTMAS ANDREA BOCELLI 2009

8 THE CHRISTMAS ALBUM ALED JONES 2004

9 DREAM A DREAM CHARLOTTE CHURCH 2000

10 HOME FOR CHRISTMAS SUSAN BOYLE 2013 122,000+

11 THIS IS CHRISTMAS KATHERINE JENKINS 2012

12 THE CHRISTMAS ALBUM FRANK SINATRA 1998

13 CHRISTMAS WITH LOVE LEONA LEWIS 2013

14 CHRISTMAS MICHAEL BALL 1999

15 KYLIE CHRISTMAS KYLIE MINOGUE 2015 113,000

16 THE CHRISTMAS ALBUM TWEENIES 2001

17 THE CHRISTMAS COLLECTION IL DIVO 2012

18 ESSENTIAL CAROLS KING'S COLLEGE CHOIR/WILLCOCKS 2014

19 O' HOLY NIGHT - THE CHRISTMAS ALBUM DANIEL O'DONNELL 2010

20 CHRISTMAS WISHES ELVIS PRESLEY 2006

 

©2016 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

There was only ever gonna be one no1 here - still top 10 6 years after its release!!

 

Mariah doing very well considering its one of the oldest on there although the continued success of AIWFCIY helps each year!

Edited December 7, 20168 yr by Steve201

Do we have sales for NOW Christmas collections?

I think I read somewhere last year that the top seller worldwide was still Phil Spector's Christmas album but Buble isn't far behind now.

Great to have some rough and updated sales for Leona's Christmas album. Will hopefully add another 10-15k or more to its total this year. :)

people bought a Jive Bunny Christmas album in 2003? :rofl:

people bought a Jive Bunny Christmas album in 2003? :rofl:

 

 

I can't for the life of me understand that being higher than Mariah and Elvis. :rolleyes:

Nouelty records always sell well over xmas & jiue bunny fit into that category

I have no recollection of the Jive Bunny album charting in 2003 whatsoever so unless I forgot all about it, it must have either been a budget release and ineligible or done incredibly well on trickle sales over the years somehow.

Also, shouldn't Susan Boyle's The Gift be included on the list? It's 2x platinum and has sold over 600k copies I believe.

Joe McElderry's Classic Christmas album was certified Gold; Wikipedia says it has 115,000 albums sold. Why compile a list if you aren't going to make it accurate? *rolls eyes*

From HAVEN,

3 CLIFF AT CHRISTMAS CLIFF RICHARD 2003 - 401.2k

Also from BPI,

5 CHRISTMAS PEACE ELVIS PRESLEY 2008 Platinum 300k +

20 CHRISTMAS WISHES ELVIS PRESLEY 2006 Silver 60k +

Edited December 8, 20168 yr by ben08

So which of those does anyone here own then? Will anyone admit to owning the Jive Bunny one?

 

I have No's 1,2,3,5,6, 15 and 19.

I'm kinda surprised Justin Bieber's Christmas album hasn't sold enough for top 20.

I'm kinda surprised Justin Bieber's Christmas album hasn't sold enough for top 20.

 

 

His Wikipedia lists at as being Gold, whereas the number 20 album on the list is apparently only Silver. So he has done, but he's been omitted for some reason...