https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/b...s-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!

 

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.

 

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?

Over half of the list are covers! I'd love to see the top 40 original Christmas tracks of the 21st Century. This list has 13 songs by Michael Buble all from the one album! He'll probably have half of the top 40 eventually, the way things are going.

 

I believe these are the original songs in the 40, but let me know if any aren't and I'll edit:

 

2 - Santa Tell Me

4 - One More Sleep

5 - Underneath the Tree

7 - Mistletoe

9 - Christmas Lights

10 - Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)

12 - Snowman

13 - Merry Christmas

18 - Santa's Coming for Us

24 - My Only Wish (This Year)

25 - Cozy Little Christmas

26 - I'll Be Home

27 - 8 Days of Christmas

28 - Cold December Night

30 - White Winter Hymnal

31 - When Christmas Comes Around

36 - You Make It Feel Like Christmas

39 - Christmas Tree Farm

Edited December 6, 20231 yr by TomJ1991

I can’t stand any of the Michael Buble versions, I’ll never understand the appeal.

This Christmas is definitely a cover

What are Hall & Oates doing at no.29? Has someone else released a version of Jingle Bell Rock this century and this was just a typo?

Edited December 6, 20231 yr by Popgeek

This Christmas is definitely a cover

Ah, good call. That means that over half of the list are covers! Rubbish.

Edited December 6, 20231 yr by TomJ1991

Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal :wub: but a Christmas song, really?

I definitely don't consider it to be a Christmas song at all (is it even on any Christmas playlists? x) but 'White Winter Hymnal' being on that list <3

I definitely don't consider it to be a Christmas song at all (is it even on any Christmas playlists? x) but 'White Winter Hymnal' being on that list <3

Yeah, it's on the Spotify playlists "Indie Christmas", "Folksy Christmas" and "festive feels" from what I can see. It's also been covered on Christmas albums by Pentatonix and (none other than) Alexander Armstrong!

 

Man With the Bag is a cover version too (the original dates back to 1950)

Love that Destiny’s Child made it

I definitely don't consider it to be a Christmas song at all (is it even on any Christmas playlists? x) but 'White Winter Hymnal' being on that list <3

 

White Winter Hymnal is on loads of festive playlists on Apple, def a seasonal hit for me!

Yeah, it's on the Spotify playlists "Indie Christmas", "Folksy Christmas" and "festive feels" from what I can see. It's also been covered on Christmas albums by Pentatonix and (none other than) Alexander Armstrong!

 

 

Fair enough then. If only it did actually return to the chart x

 

I'm going to choose to not acknowledge any of these cover versions, the Birdy one was bad enough already.

Fair enough then. If only it did actually return to the chart x

 

I'm going to choose to not acknowledge any of these cover versions, the Birdy one was bad enough already.

I was just listening to a few of them actually. I didn't hear the Birdy cover, but the Jade Bird one is pretty good.

 

The Alexander Armstrong one... isn't great at all. One review described it as "so mannered it's almost like an Armstrong and Miller comedy sketch". :lol:

I totally understand why Lily's Somewhere Only We Know rendition is associated with Christmas (the John Lewis ad & music video and timing), but it's still odd considering the original by Keane isn't.