Top 20 Greatest Christmas Songs of All Time

José Feliciano Our festive feast begins with some Latin flavour, as José Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad” takes the number twenty spot. Originally penned in 1970, the Puerto Rican singer and songwriter ironically wrote the cheerful tune when he was feeling down, or more specifically, homesick. With him stuck on the West Coast of the U.S. and his family in New York and beyond, Feliciano took the nostalgia he had of a traditional Puerto Rico Christmas and put it into his work. The resultado? “Feliz Navidad” which translates from Spanish to-you guessed it--Merry Christmas. In the over forty years since its release, it has been covered and re-recorded on multiple occasions.

#19: “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”

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The Jackson 5 You might find it hard to believe, but this sweet Christmas jingle is mired in controversy. First recorded by then 13-year-old Jimmy Boyd, the lyrics are told from the perspective of a child who witnesses his father, dressed as Santa Claus, kissing his mother and misinterpreting it as an affair. By today’s standards it’s innocuous, but in the 1950s this was scandalous! Boston’s Roman Catholic Church banned the song, until Jimmy Boyd visited the Archdiocese to defend it. The song has also been famously covered by The Ronettes in 1963, but it’s the inimitable voices of The Jackson 5 that take this spot. No group has been able to recapture the brothers’ magic in the same way.

Franz Xaver Gruber & Joseph Mohr The pride of School Nativity plays around the world, “Silent Night” has the very rare distinction of being declared a song of intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO. While so many stars have performed this sweet Christmas Carol, it has only recently been discovered who its true composers really were, having been erroneously attributed to Beethoven or Mozart for its near 200 years of existence. In actual fact, “Silent Night” has rather humble beginnings in small Austrian villages and was penned as a poem by Father Joseph Mohr not long after the Napoleonic Wars, with a melody added later by Franz Xaver Gruber.

#17: “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”

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Band Aid In 1984, the world was woken up to the horrors of Ethiopian famine, via a BBC special report. While many felt overwhelmed, The Boomtown Rats' frontman Bob Geldof was incensed. He picked up his phone to call fellow songwriter Midge Ure of Ultravox and together they came up with a song. Then they invited all the biggest artists of the era to record it together over a long studio session. Those that could did, and the rest is history. Band Aid demands the listener to take a stance. Though the famine has long since ended, the lesson never stops, serving as an annual reminder that we are all capable of helping each other, especially at Christmas.

#16: “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy”

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Bing Crosby & David Bowie This 1941 song by Katherine Kennicott Davis, is no doubt an enduring Christmas classic, but usually when anyone thinks of the “Little Drummer Boy” their minds immediately jump to the David Bowie and Bing Crosby collaboration. The track is actually two songs sung in counterpoint — “Peace on Earth” and “Little Drummer Boy,” and their TV special duet is a somewhat surreal meeting of two very different artists. Bowie purportedly only agreed to duet with Crosby as he knew his mother liked the crooner. While their introductory dialogue is, well, a cringefest, the song has a very special place in our hearts and history, as Bing passed away a month after recording.

#15: “Blue Christmas”

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Elvis Presley During the mid-20th Century, artists releasing albums devoted solely to the holiday season became all the rage. Such a trend included the one and only Elvis Presley with his 1957 Christmas album called… well, “Elvis’ Christmas Album.” Whilst a lot of the tracks are good but hardly groundbreaking, there is one particular song that holds a bittersweet place in our hearts: ”Blue Christmas.” It wasn’t then as common as it is now to have a somewhat somber song released at Christmas, unless you were a straight-up crooner. But to have a rocker record a blue Christmas song was pretty fresh, even if the song itself was not a Presley creation and was actually first recorded by Doye O’Dell a decade earlier.

Brenda Lee Released a year after our previous entry, was Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree.” Fans of the original “Home Alone” movie will always remember this particular song as underscoring Kevin’s savviness of manipulating mannequins and fooling the “Wet Bandits” into thinking the house is hosting a party. Lee, like Jimmy Boyd with his aforementioned famous track, was only 13 when she recorded the rock-and-roller. However, unlike Boyd, there’s really only been one definitive version of “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree,” which has been in the Billboard charts as recently as 2017.

The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl Our number 13 pick — an appropriately unlucky number — is a lyrical narrative of down-on-their-luck New Yorkers (though none of the performers are from The Big Apple.) The track is a favourite of many, and the lyrics are written very much in the character of the quarrelsome protagonists… and therein lies the issue. Ever since its release, the song has had many calls for censorship or removal from the airwaves due to its very offensive and hurtful language which co-writer and Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan included. Sadly, re-recording is not an option due to the tragic passing of MacColl, and the song remains popular every season.

#12: “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”

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Andy Williams Heard widely as recently as 2021 in Marvel's “Hawkeye” trailer, Andy Williams' silky voice remains a staple of the Christmas season. There have been a number of re-recordings and covers since, but the song wasn't actually the main track of the 1963 release, with Williams' cover of "White Christmas" taking precedence instead. Despite that, this version remains the hallmark—with no artist ever duplicating or replicating the magic of the original. Though the lyrics make references to somewhat outmoded holiday traditions like telling ghost stories, the song is really a list of activities which involve spending Christmas time with loved ones. That’s a theme which really is timeless.

Hall & Oates Rarely is there a Christmas playlist created without the Hall & Oates pop brilliance of "Jingle Bell Rock." If you're wondering why a song from 1983 would sound so much like a ‘50s tune, then there are two particular reasons. Firstly, the track makes a number of references to plenty of other songs and fads from that rock ‘n’ roll era, and it’s clear that the two artists have a lot of reverence for that time. The second reason is, well, although the Hall & Oates song might feel like an original, in actual fact it is indeed a cover of a 1957 track of the same name, which itself is a derivative of another entry on this list… which we’ll get to in a bit!

#10: “The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)”

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The King Cole Trio It might be quite hard to imagine a Christmas Season without hearing Nat King Cole’s golden voiced “Christmas Song” over the airwaves. The truth was that we very nearly had to go without. Whilst the 1961 version is considered his most well-known, the recording of the track, which was written by Robert Wells and Mel Torme in 1945, had already been recorded by Cole, in 1946 and then once again in 1953. So perseverance is the charm with this Christmas classic. Another interesting thing to note about the lyrics of this song, is that it was written in July, during a particularly hot summer, invoking images of roasting chestnuts.

Jimmy Durante Most people will recognise Frosty the Snowman as a mainstay character of the festive season and will probably assume has been there for a very long time. What many don’t tend to realise, however, is that Frosty the Snowman’s introduction into the holiday season came via this song of the same name, and relatively recently. Today he is perhaps as beloved a Christmas character as, say, Rudolph. The song inspired short films and stories, and even though there is no mention of the festive season in the original lyrics, Jimmy Durante’s 1950 version is a Christmas standard.

Gene Autry In what could be a case of chicken vs. egg in terms of which appeared first, The Most Famous Reindeer of them All was actually around before the song about him was released. The song was written by Christmas maestro and Frosty creator Johnny Marks, to complement the story created by his brother-in-law Robert L. May. Thematically, the idea was to teach children, through song, to appreciate their unique qualities, in the same way that Rudolph’s distinctive red nose is appreciated for clearing the path in the snowstorm. The earliest single recording is from Gene Autry in 1949, one year after the first T.V. short film adaptation of “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.”

#7: “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”

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Bing Crosby There is a little bit of contention as to what the lyrics "take a look at the Grand Hotel" are referring to in this 1951 classic, and thus how they came to be. It's considered by residents of Nova Scotia, particularly Yarmouth, that the track was written by Meredith Wilson during a stay in the Grand Hotel there. The references to the five-and-ten and the descriptions of the tree inside the hotel and the park opposite are evidence of this. However, Iowa’s citizens contend that the lyrics are referring to their Historic Park Inn Hotel. Bing Crosby’s classic recording was made in 1951, but Johnny Mathis also recorded a beloved version which was used quite memorably in the second “Home Alone” movie.

The Jackson 5 You better watch out, as number six belongs to the one and only Jolly Old St. Nick … or, rather, the announcement that he is coming to town. Written in 1934, and since recorded by over 200 artists, the timeless track was first broadcast during the Great Depression to encourage people to be charitable to those who were struggling during Christmas. Although Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters famously joined talents to release their own version, it was the inclusion on the clearly-influential The “Jackson 5 Christmas Album” that not only gave us a swinging new take, but one that most people think of for this song.

#5: “Last Christmas”

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Wham! With all due respect to Andrew Ridgeley, "Last Christmas" is really a George Michael song, and potentially his finest. He wrote, sang and performed most of the instruments as well as recorded it largely solo. The track was a sensation, ensuring that the post-Wham! days would be very successful. And no wonder, the lovely melody and the witty lyrics may have a somewhat sombre approach to a happy holiday, but therein lies its true genius. It's a true Christmas gem, that has topped favourite lists many times, and has a memorable music video to match. We're not crying, you're crying...

Frank Sinatra When is a Christmas song not a Christmas song? When it’s “Jingle Bells.” Now, we know you’re thinking that we may have been sipping too much eggnog, but “Jingle Bells” technically isn’t a Christmas Song — per se. The 1850s original was titled "The One Horse Open Sleigh,” and the song actually has no lyrical ties to Christmas and was therefore not intended to be a festive hit. (Yep, we know you’re going through the lyrics in your head to see if that’s true.) Over time, this changed obviously, leading to Frank Sinatra’s festive recording. It was also later a song transmitted from space, when the Gemini 6A astronauts serenaded Ground Control.

#3: “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”

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Judy Garland Originally written and performed in the classic "Meet Me in St. Louis,'' “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is a bittersweet and slower affair than many of its contemporaries… a little too much so, as star Judy Garland and the film’s director insisted that the lyrics be changed to make the number less melancholy. It did the trick, as the song was successful as a single and popular for the armed soldiers overseas towards the end of the Second World War. The lyrics were altered again by the song's co-writer Hugh Martin for — again — Frank Sinatra in 1957. This version remains a holiday standard to this day, and the revised lyrics are considered to be definitive.

#2: “All I Want for Christmas Is You”

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Mariah Carey For our second greatest Christmas song, we have the delightful Diva’s distinctive tones in “All I Want For Christmas is You.” Strangely enough, despite selling over 16 million copies worldwide, and being the best selling Christmas for a female artist, it also holds recognition for taking the longest time to reach the top of the U.S. Billboard Charts. Released in 1994, the song took 25 years to get there in the U.S., finally reaching there in 2019. The following year, the song reached number one in the United Kingdom. Mariah Carey's song remains famous for at least one person at an office party trying to hit that note. (Honestly, you can't, please stop trying.) Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” / Thurl Ravenscroft Iconic Deep-Voiced Song from the Animated Special “Winter Wonderland” / Felix Bernard & Richard B. Smith A Festive Delight Without Reference to Festivities “The Twelve Days of Christmas” / Frederic Austin & Andrew Carter Classic Christmas Carol Composed in the 18th Century “Joy to the World” / Isaac Watts Another Beloved Carol Dating Back Hundred of Years “Where Are You Christmas” / Faith Hill Another Grinch-y Song, originally by Mariah, But Recorded by Faith, Instead

#1: “White Christmas”

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Bing Crosby Could it really have been anything else? Debuting in the 1941 movie “Holiday Inn,” Bing Crosby would become synonymous with the sounds of festivity thanks to “White Christmas. It was so successful that Crosby would reprise the song in a movie of the same name, thirteen years later. Yet, despite being acknowledged as the people’s choice of Christmas songs, the lyrics can only be related to at most half of the planet — since residents of the Southern Hemisphere have their Christmas during warm months. Potentially Bing’s biggest song of his long career, he maintained that it would have been a success by almost anyone. Respectfully, we disagree...