How Much Do Christmas Songs Make On Spotify During Christmas?

Everybody loves a good Christmas song, but maybe none more so than the artists themselves when they manage to strike gold on a festive tune that is able to stand the test of time. The rewards for which are obvious. Smash it out the park with a Christmas hit and enjoy the royalty checks that come flowing in every year when the festive season rolls round.

Thinking about Christmas songs and the loyal servants they can become in an artist’s discography got me thinking - which Christmas songs are the most popular, and how much are they making in Spotify earnings, long after they were initially released.

So last year I created a list of practically every famous Christmas song that I could think of and made a note of how many streams it had on Spotify as of November 1. Then I did the same for the streaming count as of December 28 to calculate how many times each track was played on Spotify during the Christmas season.

Using this data, I'm then also able to estimate how much each track will have made in Spotify earnings, using the rate of £0.0033p per stream (or $0.0045). I got this number from my brother's earnings on Spotify which is also roughly in line with these sources from RepublicWorld, Ditto Music and Hypebot.

These Were The Most Streamed Christmas Songs Last Christmas

#1 and #2 should probably come as no surprise with "All I Want For Christmas Is You" and "Last Christmas" earning just shy of £700k and £600k respectively during the Christmas season last year. Which is pretty mind blowing when you consider that they're likely to produce similar sums each time Christmas rolls around. And these figures only represent a small part of what these songs will make with all of the revenue sources are combined.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day alone, "All I Want For Christmas Is You" was played on Spotify over 31 million times, earning around £102k ($139k).

These are just for individual tracks so releasing an entire album of Christmas songs if popular enough can become extremely lucrative. Michael Buble's Christmas album during the same November 1st - December 28th period was streamed over 457 million times, generating over £1.5 million in Spotify earnings. Not bad going for an album that was released in 2012.

You can also find the 50 most streamed songs on Spotify last Christmas below:

1: Mariah Carey - “All I Want for Christmas Is You”

Plays - 210,344,368

Earnings - £694,136 / $946,550

2: Wham! - “Last Christmas”

Plays - 180,022,288

Earnings - £594,074 / $810,100

3: Ariana Grande - “Santa Tell Me”

Plays - 147,905,724

Earnings - £488,089 / $665,576

4: Brenda Lee - “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”

Plays - 137,837,156

Earnings - £454,863 / $620,267

5: Michael Buble - “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas”

Plays - 137,743,178

Earnings - £454,552 / $619,844

6: Bobby Helms - “Jingle Bell Rock”

Plays - 133,986,191

Earnings - £442,154 / $602,938

7: Andy Williams - “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year”

Plays - 120,444,070

Earnings - £397,465 / $541,998

8: Kelly Clarkson - “Underneath The Tree”

Plays - 108,259,994

Earnings - £357,258 / $487,170

9: Lil Nas X - “HOLIDAY”

Plays - 100,136,569

Earnings - £330,451 / $450,615

10: Justin Bieber - “Mistletoe”

Plays - 93,794,532

Earnings - £309,522 / $422,075

11: Dean Martin - “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”

Plays - 90,454,347

Earnings - £298,499 / $407,045

12: Jose Feliciano - “Feliz Navidad”

Plays - 86,357,493

Earnings - £284,980 / $388,609

13: The Ronettes - “Sleigh Ride”

Plays - 84,664,266

Earnings - £279,392 / $380,989

14: Band Aid - “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”

Plays - 81,434,061

Earnings - £268,732 / $366,453

15: Frank Sinatra - “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”

Plays - 81,387,681

Earnings - £268,579 / $366,245

16: Michael Buble - “Holly Jolly Christmas”

Plays - 79,507,711

Earnings - £262,375 / $357,785

17: Paul McCartney - “Wonderful Christmastime”

Plays - 74,232,515

Earnings - £244,967 / $334,046

18: Chris Rea - “Driving Home For Christmas”

Plays - 73,655,061

Earnings - £243,062 / $331,448

19: John Lennon & Yoko Ono - “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”

Plays - 69,329,913

Earnings - £228,789 / $311,985

20: Sia - “Snowman”

Plays - 66,721,521

Earnings - £220,181 / $300,247

21: Nat King Cole - “The Christmas Song”

Plays - 58,711,249

Earnings - £193,747 / $264,201

22: Bing Crosby - “White Christmas”

Plays - 51,307,082

Earnings - £169,313 / $230,882

23: Shakin' Stevens - “Merry Christmas Everyone”

Plays - 50,971,229

Earnings - £168,205 / $229,371

24: Burl Ives - “Holly Jolly Christmas”

Plays - 50,717,774

Earnings - £167,369 / $228,230

25: The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl - “Fairytale of New York”

Plays - 45,961,898

Earnings - £151,674 / $206,829

26: Perry Como - “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas”

Plays - 43,019,809

Earnings - £141,965 / $193,589

27: The Jackson 5 - “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”

Plays - 42,035,619

Earnings - £138,718 / $189,160

28: Elvis Presley - “Blue Christmas”

Plays - 40,154,679

Earnings - £132,510 / $180,696

29: Chuck Berry - “Run Rudolph Run”

Plays - 37,988,798

Earnings - £125,363 / $170,950

30: Darlene Love - “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”

Plays - 37,813,578

Earnings - £124,785 / $170,161

31: Kylie Minogue - “Santa Baby”

Plays - 36,786,627

Earnings - £121,396 / $165,540

32: Elton John - “Step Into Christmas”

Plays - 36,711,247

Earnings - £121,147 / $165,201

33: Daryl Hall & John Oates - “Jingle Bell Rock”

Plays - 36,064,856

Earnings - £119,014 / $162,292

34: Sam Smith - “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”

Plays - 35,764,027

Earnings - £118,021 / $160,938

35: Coldplay - “Christmas Lights”

Plays - 35,189,789

Earnings - £116,126 / $158,354

36: Jonas Brothers - “Like It’s Christmas”

Plays - 34,574,734

Earnings - £114,097 / $155,586

37: Mariah Carey - “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"

Plays - 34,307,831

Earnings - £113,216 / $154,385

38: Britney Spears - “My Only Wish (This Year)”

Plays - 33,262,583

Earnings - £109,767 / $149,682

39: Queen - “Thank God It’s Christmas”

Plays - 32,760,426

Earnings - £108,109 / $147,422

40: Sia - “Santa’s Coming For Us”

Plays - 32,506,733

Earnings - £107,272 / $146,280

41: Michael Buble - “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”

Plays - 31,135,294

Earnings - £102,746 / $140,109

42: Gwen Stefani ft. Blake Shelton - “You Make It Feel Like Christmas”

Plays - 31,005,671

Earnings - £102,319 / $139,526

43: Liam Payne & Dixie D’Amelio - “Naughty List”

Plays - 30,321,318

Earnings - £100,060 / $136,446

44: The Jackson 5 - “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”

Plays - 30,012,269

Earnings - £99,040 / $135,055

45: Ariana Grande - “Santa Baby”

Plays - 28,896,932

Earnings - £95,360 / $130,036

46: Idina Menzel & Michael Buble - “Baby It’s Cold Outside”

Plays - 28,715,345

Earnings - £94,761 / $129,219

47: Ava Max - “Christmas Without You”

Plays - 28,675,944

Earnings - £94,631 / $129,042

48: Eartha Kitt - “Santa Baby”

Plays - 28,447,229

Earnings - £93,876 / $128,013

49: Meghan Trainor - “I’ll Be Home”

Plays - 27,893,459

Earnings - £92,048 / $125,521

50: Leona Lewis - “One More Sleep”

Plays - 27,577,616

Earnings - £91,006 / $124,099

What Were The Most Popular Christmas Songs Released in 2020?

As we can see from the estimated earnings above for songs released years, sometimes even decades ago, the allure of mastering the art of a popular Christmas song leaves artists with money signs in their eyes. So which of the newest additions last year to our festive playlists proved to be the most popular?

The answer as it turns out is “HOLIDAY” by Lil Nas X. How much of an actual Christmas song it is remains up for debate, but thanks to the festive music video I gave it the benefit of the doubt. With over 100 million streams last Christmas it earned around £330k from Spotify.

"HOLIDAY" is a big outlier however. The rest of the Christmas songs released in 2020 failed to make much of an impact with no others in the top 40 most streamed Christmas songs last year.

Getting your music featured on the John Lewis Christmas ad may seem like something that could lead to some pretty lucrative earnings. But that wasn't the case last year. The 2,762,404 streams that "A Little Love" by Celeste notched up on Spotify may sound like a lot but it doesn’t translate to a huge amount in Spotify earnings - just over £9,000. Lola Young's cover of "Together In Electric Dreams" that was used on this year's John Lewis ad has earned around £1,100 from its first month on Spotify.

These are the 10 most popular Christmas songs that debuted in 2020.

1: Lil Nas X - “HOLIDAY”

Plays - 100,136,569

Earnings - £330,451 / $450,615

2: Liam Payne & Dixie D’Amelio - “Naughty List”

Plays - 30,321,318

Earnings - £100,060 / $136,446

3: Ava Max - “Christmas Without You”

Plays - 28,675,944

Earnings - £94,631 / $129,042

4: Meghan Trainor - “My Kind of Present”

Plays - 21,635,256

Earnings - £71,396 / $97,359

5: Jonas Brothers - “I Need You Christmas”

Plays - 20,330,254

Earnings - £67,090 / $91,486

6: Mariah Carey ft. Ariana Grande & Jennifer Hudson - “Oh Santa!”

Plays - 20,226,405

Earnings - £66,747 / $91,019

7: Sam Smith - “The Lighthouse Keeper”

Plays - 18,946,007

Earnings - £62,522 / $85,257

8: Kelly Clarkson & Brett Elderege - “Under The Mistletoe”

Plays - 18,166,346

Earnings - £59,949 / $81,749

9: Dolly Parton & Michael Buble - “Cuddle Up, Cozy Down Christmas”

Plays - 17,331,374

Earnings - £57,194 / $77,991

10: Dan + Shay - “Take Me Home For Christmas”

Plays - 16,021,376

Earnings - £52,871 / $72,096

These Are The Most Streamed Christmas Songs On Spotify Of All Time

That's the Christmas songs that we listened to last year covered. Now let's take a look at which Christmas songs have racked up the highest total play counts since they debuted on Spotify. Play counts are correct as of November 30th 2021.

Again, #1 and #2 should come as little surprise with Ariana Grande's "Santa Tell Me" also taking 3rd place in all time streams.

The 2 tracks in this top 10 that weren’t in the 10 most played tracks last year are Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song" and Sam Smith's version of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas", which also weirdly have the exact same play count as of November 30th.

"The Christmas Song" is a bit of a weird one as on November 12th this year it gained 203 million plays which I am assuming was Spotify combining play counts with another version of the same track rather than everyone going nuts for a bit of Nat King Cole on a random Friday in November.

Only 17.94% of the streams of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" came last Christmas suggesting that it maybe doesn't have the staying power of other festive hits released in the 2010's. Comparatively, 41.13% of the streams of Kelly Clarkson's "Underneath The Tree" released a year earlier in 2013 came last Christmas, and 50.63% of Sia's "Snowman" from 2017.

These are the 50 most played Christmas songs on Spotify of all time (12% of them are Buble songs!):

1: Mariah Carey - “All I Want for Christmas Is You”

Plays - 982,366,654

Earnings - £3,241,810 / $4,311,607

2: Wham! - "Last Christmas

Plays - 744,216,503

Earnings - £2,455,915 / $3,266,366

3: Ariana Grande - "Santa Tell Me"

Plays - 559,718,542

Earnings - £1,847,071 / $2,456,605

4: Michael Buble - "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas"

Plays - 522,092,168

Earnings - £1,722,904 / $2,291,463

5: Nat King Cole - "The Christmas Song"

Plays - 474,464,186

Earnings - £1,565,732 / $2,082,423

6: Sam Smith - "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"

Plays - 474,464,186

Earnings - £1,565,732 / $2,082,423

7: Brenda Lee - "Rockin Around The Christmas Tree"

Plays - 441,568,443

Earnings -£1,457,176 / $1,938,044

8: Justin Bieber - "Mistletoe"

Plays - 435,765,265

Earnings - £1,438,025 / $1,912,574

9: Bobby Helms - "Jingle Bell Rock"

Plays -434,944,739

Earnings - £1,435,483 / $1,909,192

10: Andy Williams - "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year"

Plays - 426,416,897

Earnings - £1,407,176 / $1,871,544

11: Lil Nas X - "HOLIDAY"

Plays - 396,914,482

Earnings - £1,309,818 / $1,742,058

12: Sia - "Snowman"

Plays - 349,415,934

Earnings - £1,153,073 / $1,533,587

13: Band Aid - "Do They Know It's Christmas?

Plays - 346,757,798

Earnings - £1,144,301 / $1,521,920

14: Frank Sinatra - "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!"

Plays - 325,126,806

Earnings - £1,072,918 / $1,426,982

15: Jose Feliciano - "Feliz Navidad"

Plays - 309,059,237

Earnings - £1,019,895 / $1,356,461

16: John Lennon & Yoko Ono - "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)"

Plays -301,913,028

Earnings -£996,313 / $1,325,097

17: Michael Buble - "Holly Jolly Christmas"

Plays - 296,913,028

Earnings - £979,813 / $1,303,151

18: Kelly Clarkson - "Underneath The Tree"

Plays - 290,458,294

Earnings - £958,512 / $1,274,821

19: Chris Rea - "Driving Home For Christmas"

Plays - 285,758,570

Earnings - £943,003 / $1,254,194

20: Bing Crosby - "White Christmas"

Plays - 270,473,835

Earnings - £892,564 / $1,187,110

21: Paul McCartney - "Wonderful Christmastime"

Plays - 264,106,870

Earnings - £871,553 / $1,159,165

22: Dean Martin - "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!"

Plays - 243,338,178

Earnings - £803,016 / $1,068,011

23: The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl - "Fairytale Of New York"

Plays - 241,676,549

Earnings - £797,533 / $1,060,718

24: The Ronettes - "Sleigh Ride"

Plays - 236,829,370

Earnings - £781,537 / $1,039,444

25: Elton John - "Step Into Christmas"

Plays - 219,267,567

Earnings - £723,583 / $962,365

26: Shakin' Stevens - "Merry Christmas Everyone"

Plays - 214,711,547

Earnings - £708,548 / $942,369

27: Burl Ives - "Holly Jolly Christmas"

Plays. -214,037,418

Earnings - £706,323 / $939,410

28: Elvis Presley - "Blue Christmas"

Plays - 207,887,338

Earnings - £686,028 / $912,418

29: Coldplay - "Christmas Lights"

Plays - 195,140,762

Earnings - £643,965 / $856,473

30: Michael Buble - "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town"

Plays - 189,275,990

Earnings - £624,611 / $830,732

31: Perry Como - "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas"

Plays - 187,101,068

Earnings - £617,434 / $821,187

32: Britney Spears - "My Only Wish (This Year)"

Plays - 170,177,787

Earnings - £561,587 / $746,910

33: Daryl Hall & John Oates - "Jingle Bell Rock"

Plays. -161,339,378

Earnings - £532,420 / $708,119

34: Chuck Berry - "Run Rudolph Run"

Plays - 157,191,220

Earnings - £518,731 / $689,912

35: The Jackson 5 - "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town"

Plays - 156,312,428

Earnings - £515,831 / $686,055

36: Michael Buble - "White Christmas"

Plays - 155,446,026

Earnings - £512,972 / $682,253

37: Meghan Trainor - "I'll Be Home"

Plays - 148,920,458

Earnings - £491,438 / $653,612

38: Eartha Kitt - "Santa Baby"

Plays - 148,438,225

Earnings - £489,846 / $651,495

39: Michael Buble - "Jingle Bells"

Plays - 155,446,026

Earnings - £512,972 / $682,253

40: Kylie Minogue - "Santa Baby"

Plays - 138,944,066

Earnings - £458,515 / $609,826

41: Mariah Carey - "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"

Plays - 138,418,097

Earnings - £456,780 / $607,517

42: Darlene Love - "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"

Plays - 137,079,110

Earnings - £452,361 / $601,640

43: Bruce Springsteen - "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town"

Plays - 136,348,372

Earnings - £449,950 / $598,433

44: Sia - "Santa's Coming For Us"

Plays - 134,398,046

Earnings - £443,514 / $589,873

45: Ariana Grande - "Santa Baby"

Plays - 134,107,993

Earnings - £442,556 / $588,600

46: Michael Buble - "All I Want For Christmas Is You"

Plays - 133,042,238

Earnings - £439,039 / $583,922

47: Queen - "Thank God It's Christmas"

Plays - 125,922,177

Earnings - £415,543 / $552,672

48: Ariana Grande - "Last Christmas"

Plays - 122,459,332

Earnings - £404,116 / $537,474

49: Tony Bennett - "Winter Wonderland"

Plays - 119,549,612

Earnings - £394,514 / $524,703

50: Pentatonix - "Mary, Did You Know"

Plays - 118,588,063

Earnings - £391,341 / $520,483

These Are The "Happiest" Christmas Songs

Now we know the most popular Christmas songs that we love to listen to in this modern era, at least as far as Spotify streams go. But I also wanted to know what are the "happiest" festive tracks were.

For those that don’t know, Spotify measures metrics such as BPM and energy of each track that is uploaded. One of these metrics is called "valence" which basically equates to how happy a song is.

So I ran my list of Christmas songs (233 in total) through the Playlist Machinery tool that anyone can use to get these metrics from a Spotify playlist.

Coming out on top with an almost perfect "happiness" score is Gene Autry's festive bop from all the way back in 1947, "Here Comes Santa Claus", which over 60 years later still remains the "happiest" Christmas song.

There are a couple of tracks in there that I'm not sure "happy Christmas song" would be the first phrase that comes to mind to describe them but for the most part Spotify's "valence" metric seems to be pretty accurate in ranking very happy Christmas songs.

Here are the top 20 with the "valence" score out of 100 listed below. From the top 20 list I excluded two Pentatonix covers of songs already listed to avoid duplicates of covers. And yes, apparently The Vamps' version of "Jingle Bell Rock" is "happier" than any of the more traditional versions.

1: Gene Autry - "Here Comes Santa Claus"

98/100

2: The Beach Boys - "Little Saint Nick"

97/100

=3: Shakin' Stevens - "Merry Christmas Everyone"

96/100

=3: Chuck Berry - "Run Rudolph Run"

96/100

=3: Jose Feliciano - "Feliz Navidad"

96/100

=3: Gene Autry - "Frosty The Snowman"

96/100

=3: Alma Cogan - "Never Do A Tango With An Eskimo"

96/100

=8: Girls Aloud - "Not Tonight Santa"

94/100

=8: Mike Oldfield - "In Dulci Jubilo"

94/100

=8: Wham! - "Last Christmas"

94/100

=11: The Jackson 5 - "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town"

93/100

=11: Boney M. - "Mary's Boy Child / Oh My Lord"

93/100

=11: Gayla Peevey - "I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas (Hippo The Hero)"

93/100

14: Johnny Mathis - "Sleigh Ride"

89/100

=15: Justin Bieber - "Mistletoe"

88/100

=15: Sia - "Ho Ho Ho"

88/100

=15: The Vamps - "Jingle Bell Rock"

88/100

=18: Chris Rea - "Driving Home For Christmas"

87/100

=18: Frank Sinatra - "Jingle Bells"

87/100

=18: Brenda Lee- "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree"

87/100

And for those wondering, these are the 10 "least happiest" Christmas songs:

1: Celine Dion - "O Holy Night"

6/100

=2: Michael Buble - "Ave Maria"

7/100

=2: Chris de Burgh - "A Spaceman Came Travelling"

7/100

4: Faith Hill - "Where Are You Christmas"

8/100

5: Vince Guaraldi Trio - "Christmas Time Is Here"

9/100

=6: Doris Day - "I'll Be Home For Christmas"

10/100

=6: Aled Jones -"Walking In The Air"

10/100

=6: George Michael - "December Song (I Dreamed Of Christmas)"

10/100

=9: Michael Buble - "Silent Night"

11/100

=9" Doris Day - "Winter Wonderland"

11/100

These Are The "Best" Christmas Songs To Dance To

"Valence" isn’t the only metric that Spotify will give you about a track. You can also pull the "energy" and "danceability" of a song. So I combined the scores for both these metrics with the "valence" score to get an idea of what are the best Christmas songs to dance to at your Christmas party.

These are the 20 "best Christmas songs to dance to" out of a maximum score of 300.

1: Mariah Carey ft. Ariana Grande & Jennifer Hudson - "Oh Santa!"

244/300

2: Meghan Trainor ft. Earth, Wind & Fire - "Holidays"

243/300

=2: Boney M. - "Mary's Boy Child / Oh My Lord"

243/300

4: Girls Aloud. -"Not Tonight Santa"

241/300

5: Shakin' Stevens - "Merry Christmas Everyone"

239/300

6: Chuck Berry - "Run Rudolph Run"

236/300

7: Daryl Hall & John Oates - "Jingle Bell Rock"

235/300

8: Sia - "Ho Ho Ho"

234/300

=9: Bob Dylan - "Must Be Santa"

232/300

=9: *NSYNC - "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays"

232/300

=11: Jose Feliciano - "Feliz Navidad"

231/300

=11: Ariana Grande - "Santa Baby"

231/300

13: Ariana Grande - "Love Is Everything"

230/300

14: Elton John - "Step Into Christmas"

228/300

15: Wham! - "Last Christmas"

226/300

=16: John Legend ft. Stevie Wonder - "What Christmas Means To Me"

225/300

=16: Justin Bieber - "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town"

225/300

18: Ramones - "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)"

224/300

19: Britney Spears - "My Only Wish (This Year)"

221/300

=20: The Beach Boys - "Little Saint Nick"

220/300

=20: Leona Lewis - "One More Sleep"

220/300

Dataset