Wham! beats Sam Ryder to top the Christmas charts for the first time – 39 years after Last Christmas was first released
The song was first released in 1984, but was held off the top spot by Do They Know It’s Christmas?
Ryder’s new song, You’re Christmas To Me, came in at number two with Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas in third
The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York charts at number six – the song has held every position in the UK top 20 apart from number one
The Rolling Stones have the Christmas number one album with Hackney Diamonds
YouTubers LadBaby have been Christmas number one for the past five years, but decided not to enter the 2023 race
Image source, Getty ImagesThe American rapper earned his first UK number 1 with the same song back in November - and now it's the first non-Christmas song of the top ten Christmas chart!
Will there be more?
Image source, Getty ImagesMichael Buble's It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas is at number nine in the Christmas chart.
The original song was written in 1951, but Buble's dulcet tones gave it a refresh when it was re-released in 2011.
YouTubers LadBaby have camped at the top of the Christmas charts for a record-breaking five years in a row with comedy charity songs.
But they have decided to give someone else a chance this year, saying in November that they “wanted to pass the baton over”.
Their sausage roll-themed skits had started to wear thin with the public, and Mark and Roxanne Hoyle’s announcement also addressed "false stories" around the songs.
The Trussell Trust thanked the couple - in December 2022, the food bank charity said LadBaby's first four number ones had raised £305,000, on top of £1m from brand partnerships.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe Shakin' Stevens classic was first released in 1985 and shot to the top of the charts that year - and has stayed super-popular since then.
Image source, Getty ImagesHere are the final five songs before we get to the top ten...
15. Do They Know It's Christmas? - Band Aid
14. Jingle Bell Rock - Bobby Helms
13. Underneath The Tree - Kelly Clarkson
12. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year - Andy Williams
11. Santa Tell Me - Ariana Grande
So this means Mariah Carey, The Pogues, Sam Ryder and Wham! are still in contention for the top spot.
Grab your mince pies, open the chocolates.
It's going to be exciting.
Mark Savage
BBC Music correspondent
Image source, Getty ImagesIn the 36 years since it was released, Fairytale Of New York has held every position in the UK top 20 – except for number one.
After frontman Shane MacGowan died last month, fans hoped they could finally push the song to the summit.
In the following week, streams of the track increased by 170% and The Pogues’ record label arranged for a commemorative 7-inch single to be released (physical sales count for more than streams in the chart formula).
However, it seems as though the song hasn’t had quite built up the head of steam it needs.
According to Spotify, Fairytale was streamed 4 million times in the UK over the last week – almost 2 million behind Wham! and Mariah Carey.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe chart is compiled from streams and sales in the week leading up to midnight on Thursday night.
The Wham! and Pogues songs have been reissued on vinyl, while Sam Ryder's single is available on CD - with physical sales counting for more than streams in the chart formula.
Streams of newer songs also carry greater weight - meaning Ryder and the track by Ed Sheeran & Sir Elton John have a better chance of competing with classic festive tunes.
And a song's placing on streaming services' Christmas playlists can be influential too.
So although Ryder's song isn't on services like Spotify and Apple, it is likely to pop up for Amazon users who ask Alexa for festive tunes.
Image source, GettTate McRae doesn't have a festive song on the chart - but makes number 17
Numbers 20 to 16 in the chart are a nice mix of Christmas and non-Christmas tunes - and so we have Elton and Jorja Smith rubbing elbows and giving us some variety.
As we inch closer to the final top ten, though, will Christmas-themed songs prevail? Let's wait and see!
20. DJ Play A Christmas Song - Cher
19. Step Into Christmas - Elton John
18. Stay Another Day - Jorja Smith
17. Greedy - Tate McRae
16. Let It Snow, Let It Snow - Dean Martin
Stay with us as we keep counting down the festive chart.
Image source, Getty ImagesSimon Cowell’s X Factor juggernaut dominated the festive charts in the mid-to-late 2000s, but its dominance was ended by the most unlikely of songs.
The show’s first winner Steve Brookstein didn’t make it to the top spot - his cover of Phil Collins’ Against All Odds was pipped to the post by Band Aid 20’s Do They Know Its Christmas?
But from 2005-09, the ITV talent show’s winner was say firmly at number one as they tucked into their Christmas dinner on 25 December.
After Shayne Ward (That’s My Goal), Leona Lewis (A Moment Like This), Leon Jackson (When You Believe) and Alexandra Burke (Hallelujah), things looked all set for 2009’s winner, Joe McElderry, to hit number one to make it five-in-a-row for Cowell’s record label, Syco.
But John and Tracey Morter from Essex had other ideas.
And Rage Against The Machine’s Killing in the Name - inspired by police brutality in the US - ended the X Factor streak following a social media campaign which saw sales of 500,000 downloads.
At the time, Rage Against The Machine described themselves as “ecstatic” at reaching the top of the tree.
Among the classics that flood the charts every year, a few new festive tunes get a look-in – including Cher’s DJ Play A Christmas Song, at number 20.
The party-friendly tune comes from the pop legend’s first festive album.
Colin Paterson
Entertainment correspondent, BBC News
Image source, Getty ImagesRemarkably Hackney Diamonds is The Rolling Stones' first ever Christmas number one album, and it happens in the week of Keith Richards' 80th birthday.
Their old rivals The Beatles have managed a record seven, topping the festive charts every year from 1963 to 1969 (With The Beatles, Beatles for Sale, Rubber Soul, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles and Abbey Road), punctuated only by soundtrack to The Sound of Music in 1966.
The Beatles also returned to the top of the tree for Christmas 2000, with their compilation 1, winning a battle against the boy band Westlife (when they were still a fab five, rather than fab four).
That Beatles greatest hits has performed a lot better than the current re-releases of their 1962-1966 and 1967-1970, red and blue albums, which, despite the success of the Now and Then single, find themselves respectively in today’s chart at 35 and 25 only 6 weeks after the new remixed versions came out.
It is also worth a mention that the John Lennon Collection in 1982 and McCartney III, only three years ago, were solo Beatles Christmas number ones.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe hits keep on coming! Have a look at these... Hit after hit after hit. We could be at the work Christmas party.
24. Sleigh Ride - Ronettes
23. Happy Jolly Christmas - Michael Buble
22. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band
21. Driving Home For Christmas - Chris Rea
Stay with us... The top 20 is here! There's still some massive songs to come.
Don't forget you can listen live at the top of this page.
Mark Savage
BBC Music correspondent
Image source, Getty ImagesIn Nick Hornby’s 1998 novel About A Boy, one of the characters is able to live a lavish, playboy lifestyle thanks solely to the royalties earned from his father’s novelty Christmas song Santa’s Super Sleigh.
Like all good fiction, it’s rooted in truth.
When I spoke to Swedish pop star Zara Larsson earlier this week, she was remarkably candid about it: “The dream would be to get one of those Last Christmas songs, because then you're set. You're good, for life.”
Slade’s Noddy Holder has called Merry Xmas Everybody his “pension plan” – with some publications suggesting it earns him £340,000 every year.
Of course, no pop star in their right mind is about to show us their royalty statement. But we can use Spotify’s public data to make some estimates.
According to their weekly chart, Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You was the world’s most-played song last week, notching up 53,338,897 streams.
Even at Spotify’s lowest pay-out rate of $0.003 per stream, that works out as $160,000 – split between Mariah, her co-writer Walter Afanasieff, their publishers and her record label.
Not bad for a song that took 15 minutes to compose.
Two versions of the same hit here... Wizzard's I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday coming in at 26 but a cover version of it by Creator Universe - a group made up of 30 TikTok stars - also makes it in - albeit three places below.
29. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday - Creator Universe
28. Feliz Navidad - Jose Feliciano
27. Santa Can't You Hear Me - Kelly Clarkson & Ariana Grande
26. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday - Wizzard
25. Wonderful Christmastime - Paul McCartney
Jamie Whitehead
Live reporter
In my last job, I couldn't move for Justin Bieber stories. It seemed like everything he did led a BBC Minute World Service news bulletin. So it's surprising - to me at least - to see him so low on the list here.
We've also got arguably the first appearance of a bona-fide Christmas classic here, with Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody charting at 33. IT'S CHRIIIIIIIIISTMAS!!!!
34. Mistletoe - Justin Bieber
33. Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade
32. One More Sleep - Leona Lewis
31. Winter Wonderland - Laufey
30. Snowman - Sia
Mark Savage
BBC Music correspondent
How long does it take a Christmas song become a Christmas classic? Absolutely ages.
Take Elton John’s Step Into Christmas. First released in 1973, it reached number 24 in the charts then languished, forgotten, for three decades.
Resurrected by streaming playlists in the late 2000s, it was finally certified Gold (representing 400,000 sales) in 2018, then double Platinum (1.2 million sales) in 2021.
That’s the journey most Christmas songs take: an initial burst of interest, followed by a long, slow build of nostalgia, before they become inescapable.
Chart analysts call this a “U-shaped curve”; and you see it time and time again.
Recently resurrected songs include Ariana Grande’s Santa Tell Me, Leona Lewis’s One More Sleep and Justin Bieber’s Mistletoe (No 34 this year) – which could all conceivably replace Wham and Mariah when a new generation seizes control of the charts.
Image source, ReutersSo numbers 40-35 on this year's Christmas chart have just been announced on Radio 1. They includes the oldest song in this year's chart - The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole.
40. DNA (Loving You) - Billy Gillies
39. leavemealone - Fred Again & Baby Keem
38. Is It Over Now? (Taylor's Version) - Taylor Swift
37. Houdini - Dua Lipa
36. The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole
35. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Darlene Love
Interestingly, as our music correspondent Mark Savage points out in our previous post, Dua Lipa would have been number four in this chart were it not for all the festive entries.
Mark Savage
BBC Music correspondent
Image source, Getty ImagesWhen the final pre-Christmas chart was released last Friday, 28 of the Top 40 songs were Christmas-themed; and this week the tally will be higher.
That’s despite the chart being weighted against older songs – which need twice as many streams to count as one “sale” than new releases.
The dominance of Christmas classics is an annoyance to many in the music industry, who say modern acts are being denied crucial publicity in the biggest sales week of the year.
There have even been calls for a separate Christmas chart – in the same way that compilation albums are excluded from the album countdown.
So, if Christmas songs were excluded, who’d be this week’s Top Five? Based on early sales data, it would look like this:
So, who is it going to be?
Sam Ryder? Wham!? The Pogues?
Jack Saunders is counting us down to the top sport on Radio 1 now, and you can listen without leaving this page.
Just click Play at the top.
Image source, Getty ImagesShane MacGowan with Victoria Mary Clarke pictured in 1999
The wife of late Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan has said she hopes his song Fairytale of New York will be Christmas number one in his memory. MacGowan died last month, following a long battle with illness.
Victoria Mary Clarke told BBC Radio 4's Today programme she was "very much in favour" of the track reaching the top spot.
“It would be nice, wouldn't it?" she said. "It should be the Christmas number one. It absolutely should."
Fairytale of New York, which also features Kirsty MacColl, was originally released in 1987. It has never reached number one - only peaking at number two.
However, streaming has taken it back to the top 10 every Christmas for the past six years.
Read more here.