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A selection of great Christmas songs by various artists. Mostly hit singles. Songwriter details to be added, but many were written by the performers.
The seasonal nature of Christmas songs means they are of no interest at other times of year, but anyway most singles only sell for a few weeks after release, and Christmas songs often make the singles charts year after year. On the other hand there are several examples where an artist has had a successful Christmas song, but has had little success afterwards.
It is interesting to ask "what counts as a Christmas single?". Some charts of Christmas songs look only at the chart position (especially number one) as on Christmas Day. As a result various other songs might be included in such a Christmas chart, for example Bohemian Rhapsody. Some songs are not specifically Christmas songs, but are seasonal for winter in general, notably Winter Wonderland, which is nevertheless strongly regarded as a Christmas song. Others somehow reflect the mood of the season, notably Two Little Boys by Rolf Harris. Then there are songs which do mention Christmas, but only briefly, e.g. Stop the Cavalry by Jona Lewie.
Steeleye Span's Gaudete is interesting. You can tell it's Christmas song, but only if you know a little latin! (Christus est natus).
| Song | Songwriter(s) | Principal performer | Notes |
| Silent Night (German words) | Mohr, Gruber | - | 1816-18 |
| Silent Night, current English words | Rev. Young | - | 1859 |
| Deck the Halls | Old Welsh tune | - | |
| Deck the Halls, English words | - | 1881 | |
| Jingle Bells | Pierpont | - | 1857 |
| Santa Claus is Coming to Town | Coots; Gillespie | many | 1932 |
| Winter Wonderland | Felix Bernard | many | 1934 |
| White Christmas | Irving Berlin | Bing Crosby | 1942 |
| Mary's Boy Child | Harry Belafonte | 1957 | |
| Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree | Brenda Lee | 1962 | |
| Blue Christmas | Elvis Presley | 1964 | |
| Christmas | Pete Townshend | The Who | 1968 |
| Happy Xmas (War is Over) | John Lennon | John Lennon | 1972 |
| Merry Xmas Everybody | Slade | 1973 | |
| Step Into Christmas | Elton John | 1973 | |
| I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday | Wizzard | 1973 | |
| Gaudete Midi file | trad | Steeleye Span | 1973 |
| Lonely This Christmas | Mud | 1974 | |
| Christmas Song | O'Sullivan | Gilbert O'Sullivan | 1974 |
| I Believe in Father Christmas | Greg Lake | 1975 | |
| In Dulce Jubilo | trad | Mike Oldfield | 1975 |
| When a Child is Born | Johnny Mathis | 1976 | |
| Mary's Boy Child - Oh My Lord | Boney M | 1978 | |
| Wonderful Christmastime | McCartney | Paul McCartney | 1979 |
| Stop the Cavalry | Jona Lewie | 1980 | |
| Christmas Dream | Lloyd-Webber, Rice | Perry Como | 1982 |
| A Winter's Tale | David Essex | 1982 | |
| Do They Know it's Christmas | Band Aid | 1984 | |
| Merry Christmas Everyone | Shakin' Stevens | 1985 | |
| Mistletoe and Wine | Cliff Richard | 1988 | |
| Saviours Day | Cliff Richard | 1990 |
The 70's seem to have been the great era of the modern Christmas pop song. There weren't many in the 60's, and it is especially notable that The Beatles never recorded a Christmas song, though they did usually release a single just before Christmas. Perhaps the thing they did which was most targeted at Christmas was Magical Mystery Tour and was a television special shown at Christmas. The soundtrack was a very unusual double E.P.
Of course the first traditional Christmas songs were carols and many can be found as Midi files on the internet.
Probably the greatest performers of carols in a modern form are Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band. They specialize in carols and other Christmas songs.
Sources for traditional songs (and a huge amount of traditional instrumental music) can be found by using the search facility at:
See also:
www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com
Please put a link to this page using one of the following locations:
www.songs1.com
or direct to this page:
www.songs1.com/christmas.html