The 50 best Christmas songs of all time

When was the last time you properly listened to Kirsty MacColl and The Pogues’ epic Big Apple-set fable? Shut your eyes and give it a go, and if you aren’t a nervous wreck by the fade-out, your heart (like that jumper from your nan) is two sizes too small. ‘Fairytale…’ is a perfect four-minute narrative of hope, despair and heartbreak – and, despite the profanity, it ends with love. 

Yes, she’s become somewhat of a meme in recent years. But they say you can hear Mariah Carey defrosting as soon as it hits September, and the fact of the matter is that this song is about the most sure-fire way to know it’s Christmas (wherever you are). Buying socks in H&M? Mariah’s playing. Perusing gingerbread houses at a Christmas market? She’s on, folks. Watching Love Actually for the fifth time this year? She’s a-comin’ in that last scene. Even if you think you hate this Christmas banger, you actually love it. It wouldn’t be Christmas without it, after all. Mariah, we thank you for your service. Long live this festive tune. 

A perfect Christmas song has to strike the right balance of melancholy and cheer, because after all, Christmas is all about contradictions. It’s pigs in blankets with a side of family resentment. ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ is just the ticket. It’s got jingly bells, a bombastic Motown horn section, lyrics filled with heartbreak and yearning, and some banging vocals by Darlene Love.

Feliz Navidad is a criminally underrated Christmas song, despite apparently being one of the most played across the world. It’s been around for years and years, originally released way back in 1970, but its jaunty, cheerful energy has stood the test of time. The trumpets, the classic well-wishes belted in Spanish, the strum of the Puerto Rican cuatro? What a catchy, merry treat. Whack it on your christmas playlists – it’ll really spread the joy.

Queen Ella Fitzgerald and King Louis Armstrong are a completely necessary part of every Christmas, IMO. They actually have a whole Christmas album together, but ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ is the absolute classic from their repertoire. A twinkling piano and a double bass are all that’s needed for their soft, mellow harmonies, but wack the whole album on and you’ve got the perfect soundtrack to your Christmas nibbles and cocktails evening. 

A ballad of doomed romance, ‘Last Christmas’ features sleighbells and synths, plus some truly memorable knitwear in the video. But what really sets ‘Last Christmas’ apart is George Michael’s heart-on-sleeve delivery: his genuine heartbreak horror (‘My God! I thought you were someone to rely on’) and wistful, sexy whispers. The words ‘Merry Christmas’ never sounded so sultry. 

The power of Christmas nostalgia itself is greater than real memories. Hence, all of us can hark back with Bing on this Irving Berlin-penned ’40s number to a white Christmas just like the ones we used to know, even if our true past is full of crushing disappointments (December 25, 1993 – no Hornby train set). 

There are versions of this song by everyone from Bieber to Bublé, but Michael and the gang’s effort is the grooviest and the most fun. And since the song is mainly used as a bargaining tool by parents, it does make sense to have kids on the mic.

Being Jewish, songwriter Johnny Marks didn’t celebrate Christmas, but in the ’40s and ’50s he wrote some of the greatest Christmas songs of all time. Among them are ‘Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer,’ ‘I Heard The Bells of Christmas Day,’ and this – an easy-on-the-ear rock ’n’ roll tune sung by a 13-year-old Brenda Lee, which really needs no introduction.