What’s the best-selling Christmas song of all time?

What song gets the most people Rocking Around The Christmas Tree? (Picture: Getty)

December’s here, Christmas is coming, and everyone’s favourite festive songs are on rotation.

From All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey, to older classics like Merry Xmas Everybody by Slade – the same Christmas playlist is broken out every year, with a few new additions.

The biggest new Christmas song for 2021 surely belongs to Ed Sheeran and Sir Elton John, who’ve teamed up to release a future classic called Merry Christmas.

The royalties are set to come rolling in, no doubt – as it will for all of these stars, and anyone who achieves a UK Christmas No. 1 (such as YouTube jokester LadBaby).

But which Christmas tune is officially the world’s greatest? Or, to be specific, which festive record has sold the most?

Here’s what the charts say.

The biggest selling Christmas song of all time

Bing Crosby’s classic White Christmas is not only the best-selling Christmas song, but the best-selling single of all time.

The 1942 song, written by Irving Berlin and performed by Bing Crosby, has sold an estimated 50 million copies since its release. 

In 1942 alone, the song spent 11 weeks at the top of the Billboard charts in the US, and it won the Oscar for best original song for its part in the film Holiday Inn.

When other versions of the songs are factored in, including those by Frank Sinatra and Michael Buble, White Christmas has sold an estimated 100 million copies, and is listed as the biggest-selling single worldwide of all time in the Guinness Book of World Records.

However, it has never reached number one in the UK, despite a 2019 campaign by the Crosby family to get it there. Back in 1977, it reached its peak chart position of number five.

What is the biggest UK Christmas number one?

In terms of UK Christmas number ones, the biggest selling single is Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas, which was released in 1984.

The charity single has sold 3.82 million copies, according to the Official Charts, and is the only Christmas hit to sell over 3 million units.

Do They Know It’s Christmas is the UK’s biggest-selling Christmas number one (Picture: Staff/Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)

Do They Know It’s Christmas has hit number one with another three recordings in 1989, 2004, and 2014. 

While not a Christmas song, Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen has been the Christmas number one twice 16 years apart, in 1975 and in 1991, and has sold 2.62 million copies.

Wings’ Mull of Kintyre, the 1977 Christmas number one, has sold 2.09 million copies, while Mary’s Boy Child has sold 1.9 million copies of the Boney M version, the 1978 Christmas number one, and a further 1.19 million with Harry Belafonte’s version, which achieved the same feat in 1957. 

MORE : Christmas Number One UK 2021: Top contenders, date, and latest odds

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