12 days of Christmas: a search for the most popular Christmas song

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Christmas music has been an integral part of the Holiday season for many decades. The wide range of styles and genres go from lively jazz to pop billboard hits and with such a wide selection, there’s something for everyone.

We all know what we hear the most, but which are the best Christmas songs? 

There’s a lot of controversies and heated debate surrounding Christmas music, although a few songs are clearly in the running for “greatest Christmas song.” But because this music is so subjective, and in the spirit of cold, hard journalism, I turned to the facts to bring you the definitive list of greatest Christmas hits of all time.

For a quick easy answer, we first turn to the most popular music streaming service, Spotify. 

At the top of the list with 700 million streams sits Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You.” 

Surprised? Me neither. And that’s not good enough.

Here’s another try: according to the Guinness World Records, Bing Cosby’s “White Christmas” is not only the most sold Christmas single of all time, but it is actually the most sold single of all time with over 50 million physical copies sold. By comparison, “All I Want for Christmas is You” has only sold an estimated 16 million copies since its 1994 release. The Christmas Queen is still in 11th place on this list, but because Bing Cosby’s hit was released in 1942, it has had more time to sell copies. In fact, “White Christmas” has only sold about three times as many copies in about three times as many years.

The mean doesn’t represent actual sales per year, but it does mean “All I Want for Christmas is You” is on track with “White Christmas,” especially considering the rise of digital downloads and fall of physical copies in recent years. 

Since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking digital music sales in June 2003, Mariah Carey has sold over three million downloads of her Christmas behemoth, over twice as much as the runner up, “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24.” As far as digital downloads, Bing Cosby’s “White Christmas” doesn’t even make the top ten.

Maybe Billboard has more answers. According to their Holiday 100 chart, “All I Want for Christmas is You” has been the uncontested number one for many years. “White Christmas” sulks in a meager 13th place and as far as Spotify streams, it’s in ninth place.

So in terms of single sales and streams, “All I Want for Christmas is You” is the clear winner, in at least more recent years. But does that make it the most popular Christmas song of all time?

Not quite.

I have not taken covers into consideration yet. Considering most Christmas songs are not original, many older Christmas songs are used again and again in newer albums.

Such as “White Christmas.”

“Silent Night,” however, is the most common Christmas tune with 26,496 covers on Spotify. But it is in the public domain, meaning it is free to cover and use for profit. Want to guess the most covered non-public domain Christmas song?

That’s right it’s “White Christmas.”

(Editor’s note: data accurate as of December 2015)

The old age of “White Christmas” does not put it at a disadvantage here as the newest most-covered Christmas song is “Blue Christmas,” which was released in 1964 but with only seven thousand covers. 

According to Stacker, “White Christmas” is actually the 11th most covered song of all time, beaten only by “Silent Night,” “Summertime” by Helen Jepson, and eight Beatles — or Beatles members — songs.

If “White Christmas” had been in the public domain for as long as “Jingle Bells” and “Silent Night,” it almost certainly would have had thousands of more covers, possibly placing it above “Silent Night” and higher in the all-time list.

It’s also worth noting that of the top 10 streamed Spotify Christmas songs, “White Christmas” has been covered more than all of them combined.

We’re left with a rock, paper, scissors game involving “All I Want for Christmas is You,” “White Christmas” and “Silent Night,” none of which being truly able to win outright. 

But with this data, we can come to our final conclusions. 

With the most covers of any Christmas song and being the fourth most covered song of all time, “Silent Night” is the most popular Christmas hymn and most common Christmas tune.

With the most Spotify streams and digital sales of any Christmas single, “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey is the highest trending Christmas single.

And with the most physical sales of any single ever recorded and one of the most covered songs of all time, “White Christmas” is both the most prolific Christmas single and most common copyrighted Christmas tune.

Thus we have the three most popular Christmas songs of all time, each leading different categories and appealing to different audiences.

It will be interesting to see how Mariah Carey could come to dominate the field of Christmas music in years to come.

William Bultez is a broadcast journalism major from Idaho. He is a film fanatic, dog lover and music enthusiast who enjoys the outdoors.

@willistheginger

—william.bultez@aggiemail.usu.edu