Every December, as fairy lights twinkle across frosted windows and champagne glasses clink at candlelit parties, the same question arises: what is the definitive Christmas soundtrack? Music, after all, is the invisible garland that binds together the rituals of the season — from midnight masses to after-dinner slow dances. Some songs are frothy, sequined confections of the pop charts; others are evergreen standards, as enduring as a sprig of holly pressed between the pages of an old Vogue.
Here, we rank the ultimate Christmas songs — from Bing’s cinematic crooning to Wham!’s bittersweet glitter.
1. Bing Crosby – White Christmas (1942)
No Christmas canon can exist without Bing. With its first appearance in Holiday Inn and later immortalised in White Christmas, Crosby’s velvet baritone wrapped the world in nostalgia during wartime austerity. It remains the best-selling single of all time, a soft-focus dream of hearth and snow.
2. Frank Sinatra – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (1947 recording)
Sinatra gave Judy Garland’s melancholic ballad from Meet Me in St. Louis its definitive polish, turning longing into sophistication. His phrasing made the bittersweet hopeful, embodying mid-century elegance in three and a half minutes.
3. Elvis Presley – Blue Christmas (1957)
Elvis croons with a curl of the lip and just enough heartbreak to suggest stockings hung in vain. It is Christmas by way of Memphis — a mixture of gospel roots, country yearning, and rock ’n’ roll glamour. I love him more than anything else in this world. Here he is.
4. Wham! – Last Christmas (1984)
Few pop songs distil the ache of seasonal romance as perfectly as George Michael in pastel knitwear. A synth-pop jewel, it captures the gloss of the 1980s while remaining eternally relevant to anyone who has ever suffered heartache beneath the mistletoe.
5. Slade – Merry Xmas Everybody (1973)
Glam rock in glitter boots shouting across the living room. Noddy Holder’s jubilant holler is not subtle, but Christmas rarely is. This is working-class Britain in sequins — loud, raucous, and utterly unforgettable.
6. Mariah Carey – All I Want for Christmas Is You (1994)
An instant classic that somehow sounds older than it is. With bells, gospel harmonies, and Mariah’s stratospheric runs, it cemented itself as the modern Christmas anthem — a perennial chart-topper that returns like clockwork.
7. Nat King Cole – The Christmas Song (1946)
“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” Cole’s honeyed timbre and velvet orchestration turned Mel Tormé’s tune into the very definition of festive warmth. It is timeless cocktail-hour chic.
8. Darlene Love – Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) (1963)
Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound at its shimmering best. Love’s voice is all urgency and heartbreak, wrapped in a glittering avalanche of bells and strings. It is the one song every pop singer longs to cover.
9. The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl – Fairytale of New York (1987)
The antidote to saccharine seasonal sentiment: gritty, tragic, and oddly romantic. It is the Christmas song of smoky bars and snow-strewn city streets, where love and loss mingle in equal measure.
10. Joni Mitchell – River (1971)
Not technically a Christmas song, yet perhaps the most elegiac of them all. With its borrowed “Jingle Bells” motif, Joni’s piano lament drifts through December like an icy river — a reminder that not every holiday is lit by tinsel.
TL;DR
Christmas music is less about ranking than resonance. Bing and Sinatra remain eternal; Elvis lends velvet swagger; Mariah glitters like sequins at midnight; Wham! still aches with glitter-flecked heartbreak. Together they form the kaleidoscopic soundtrack of the season — the carols of cocktail parties, department stores, and midnight cab rides, a tradition as enduring as the star atop the tree.
My World of Interiors 