Ranking the go-to songs for your Christmas 2024 playlist: 30-year-old favorite sits top of the tree

Judging by current, all-time and predicted Christmas charts, there is one song in particular that has become a must-have on Americans’ Yuletide playlists.

Mariah Carey set to reign again at Christmas in 2024

Sung by Mariah Carey, an artist who has earned the nickname the ‘Queen of Christmas’, the 1994 track “All I Want for Christmas Is You” tops list after list of the most popular holiday-season hits.

Originally released on Carey’s album Merry Christmas, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” sits at the summit of Billboard’s latest Holiday 100 chart - having spent only eight weeks off No. 1 since the launch of the rankings in 2011 - and leads the music publication’s Greatest of All Time Holiday 100 list.

The track, which nets the singer a reported $2.5 million to $3 million in royalties every year, was this month predicted by the gambling site Jackpot City to be on pace to accrue around two billion Spotify listens in the period between November 1 and December 27, 2024. That’s some 400 million more streams than its nearest challenger.

As AS USA’s Maite Knorr-Evans explains in this list of go-to songs for the festive season, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is also at the top of Spotify’s all-time holiday streaming chart.

Watch and listen - Mariah Carey’s “All I want for Christmas Is You”:

What other songs are Christmas favorites?

According to Jackpot City’s forecast, Carey’s Xmas smash will be followed in this year’s popularity list by Wham!’s 1984 favorite “Last Christmas”, which joins “All I Want for Christmas Is You” in the top 10 in Billboard’s all-time holiday chart.

Although “Last Christmas” has slipped to fourth in Billboard’s current Holiday 100, the track has - for the second year running - been confirmed as the Christmas No. 1 in the UK’s Official Chart.

Per Jackpot City and Billboard’s charts, other notable, enduringly successful Yuletide hits include Brenda Lee’s 1958 song “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”, and Bobby Helms' “Jingle Bell Rock”, which was first released in the US the year before Lee’s classic.

Jackpot City’s predicted most-streamed 2024 Christmas songs:

1. “All I want for Christmas Is You”, Mariah Carey

2. “Last Christmas”, Wham!

3. “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”, Brenda Lee

4. “Jingle Bell Rock”, Bobby Helms

5. “Underneath the Tree”, Kelly Clarkson

Billboard’s Holiday 100 - week of December 21, 2024:

1. “All I want for Christmas Is You”, Mariah Carey

2. “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”, Brenda Lee

3. “Jingle Bell Rock”, Bobby Helms

4. “Last Christmas”, Wham!

5. “A Holly Jolly Christmas”, Burl Ives

Billboard’s Greatest of All Time Holiday 100 songs:

1. “All I want for Christmas Is You”, Mariah Carey

2. “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”, Brenda Lee

3. “Jingle Bell Rock”, Bobby Helms

4. “The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)”, Nat King Cole

5. “A Holly Jolly Christmas”, Burl Ives

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