Everyone has their favourite Christmas songs which they listen to every single year, with the top songs hotly debated.
Christmas music spans genres from classic carols to pop hits to alternative tracks you might have overlooked.
This year saw a new track from Tom Grennan battle it out for the top chart spot against 40-year-old Wham!, who eventually took the number one with Last Christmas.
Even Christmas icons have their favourites with Wizzard’s Roy Wood praising 90s hit All I Want For Christmas, by Mariah Carey when chatting to Metro.
Meanwhile, Calum Scott told us he was inspired by Sam Ryder’s festive success last year when he stormed the charts with a new song.
So with Christmas music constantly evolving, which decade has the best festive songs?
Our obsession with Christmas music really started in the 70s, with hits like Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody and Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday.
The two were locked in a chart battle in 1973, with Slade taking the crown, sparking the beginning of a huge British tradition.
In 1974, we saw Mud’s Lonely This Christmas dominate the charts while Elton John released the classic song Step Into Christmas.
The Jackson 5, Boney M, The Temptations, and even Elvis Presley all let their festive side out with covers and new songs during this time.
Momentum had really picked up by the end of the decade and there was a huge boom in new Christmas songs as we moved into the 1980s.
In 2022, music licensing company PPL PRS found that 75% of Brits think that the 80s has the best Christmas music.
This era was undeniably iconic as it was defined by the likes of Band Aid, Wham, Shakin’ Stevens, Cliff Richard, and The Pogues.
Many of these songs are now considered classics, especially with Band Aid re-releasing Do They Know It’s Christmas every few years.
A close second for the 2,000 people asked was the 90s, which gave us East 17, Spice Girls three year domination, and Mariah’s All I Want for Christmas is You.
However, there was a step drop-off after the turn of the century as artists slowed down their Christmas releases.
Roy Wood explained to Metro that there’s not been much Christmas song competition since the turn of the century and the 00s.
He shared: ‘Strangely enough, I don’t think it’s had a lot of competition over the years. During the period when boy bands started, record companies were thinking, “Well, radio stations stop playing Christmas records just after Christmas Day.”
‘They were thinking of a way to combat that so that the record continued to be played in the new year. So you’ll find that a lot of times, the [music] videos were Christmasy and snowy and all that but the songs weren’t mentioning Christmas in the [lyrics].
‘I think they did need to try and gain some more air time, so from that time, there haven’t been a lot of Christmas songs written. It’s a shame not to write one because of that reason.
‘All the records like Slade and all that are still doing well purely because there’s been no new stuff.’
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The 2010s began to shift once more as the likes of Kelly Clarkson and Justin Bieber released festive records, although they’re yet to be certified as ‘classics’.
Michael Buble has also solidified himself as a certified festive crooner with multiple Christmas tracks to his name.
Over the past few years, Christmas fans have been treated to some new songs that have plenty of classic potential.
It could be we love the 80s era because we’ve had 40 years to learn the hits, maybe by 2060 we’ll hold Tom Grennan’s It Can’t Be Christmas in the same esteem.
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