We wouldn’t be in the 21st century and its binary culture if we didn’t decide to compare and try to decipher, after all, which is the greatest Christmas song of all time. The answer is not as simple as expected but full of curiosities.

Among the thousands of Christmas songs, in 2024 we will celebrate the anniversaries of the two most recent and famous ones – All I Want For Christmas Is You, by Mariah Carey, and Last Christmas, by the band Wham and more specifically, George Michael – one turns 30 and the other 40. Therefore, both are already in the hall of classics. But, even with astronomical numbers, because they are even older, the two pop hits do not surpass the iconic Silent Night or White Christmas, although time is signaling some changes.

I will focus on each of the four separately, but let’s get to the answer to the mystery. Using the most recorded song as a criterion, that crown remains with Silent Night. If we consider the highest number of sales as a criterion, well, they still haven’t beaten White Christmas, especially when sung by Bing Crosby. And, although Last Christmas is extremely popular, it is Mariah Carey who is the “Mother Christmas” with the Christmas hymn she wrote in 1994. There are no less than eight platinum records (more than 8 million copies sold each), it tops all Christmas charts worldwide, the official video has more than 750 million views on YouTube and Spotify, the song has accumulated more than 1.3 billion plays, standing out as one of the most listened to Christmas songs on the platform. Still, it is not “the” greatest Christmas song of all time. That position is maintained by Silent Night.

And what are the stories behind each of them?

The poem for Peace turned into a religious hymn

Europe was still recovering from the force of the Napoleonic Wars, suffering from famine, financial shortages, and tragedies of fires, floods, and famine when in 1816 world peace was declared. To inspire his congregation, the Catholic priest Josef Mohr, who lived in a small town near Salzburg, wrote a poem called “Stille Nacht”, but kept it for two years without presenting it to anyone.

Until, on Christmas 1818, the town suffered a flood and the parish church of Saint Nicholas of Mohr was flooded. Devastated, but wanting to inspire the faithful to maintain faith in the future, Mohr asked the teacher and organist Franz Xaver Gruber, who played in a neighboring village, to set his poem to music. As a tenor, he wanted to sing it with two voices and a guitar.

Gruber accepted the proposal and wrote the arrangement in just one afternoon, while Mohr waited until the end of Mass to surprise him (and also because the guitar was not an accepted instrument in the Church). As if by magic, he strummed the instrument and sang his song softly, but at the end, the entire congregation joined him in chorus. Christmas magic?

It was so powerful that instead of being a one-night thing, organ repairman Karl Mauracher, who was present, took the score home with him and began to sing with his village choir. The fame of the choirs grew and eventually, it was translated and spread throughout Europe. In 1839, it reached the United States with the Rainer Family Singers tour. Twenty years later, Episcopal priest John Freeman Young, then serving at Trinity Church in New York City, made the English translation that is now the official one.

Given the history of its origin, it is even more exciting and understandable to know that when actor and singer Bing Crosby recorded Silent Night in 1942, at the height of World War II, his intention was the same as his composition: to inspire peace and harmony. This recording sold more than 10 million copies, an absolutely unbeatable number for many decades and of unique significance when considering the time.

Crosby’s version helped popularize the religious song and was translated into more than 300 languages ​​and dialects, with thousands of versions recorded by various artists in these 206 years. According to the Guinness Book of Records, it is the most-recorded song of all time. Mariah Carey herself has already re-recorded it and not even her greatest hit will be able to achieve the same relevance. After all, with great historical importance, “Silent Night” does not directly compete in popularity with modern hits on streaming platforms or commercial radios, which prioritize Christmas pop songs. It reigns supreme in traditional, religious, and choral concert contexts because its universal and spiritual appeal transcends generations.

The White Christmas that is losing ground

Legend has it that White Christmas was composed in 1940, in a very hot California. Irving Berlin, who religiously wrote a song a day, knew he had hit the nail on the head and asked his assistant to write, “I wrote a song over the weekend that is not only the best song I have ever written, it is the best song ever written,” he celebrated.

But it only became a classic in 1942, when it was performed by Bing Crosby in the film Holiday Inn. It won the Oscar that year and became an instant classic, so much so that the original version with the singer is the most iconic and the best-selling single of all time, with estimates of more than 50 million copies sold worldwide. When the other versions are added together, the number reaches around 100 million copies, which is why it is considered the greatest and most iconic in historical, commercial, and cultural terms.

Like Silent Night, White Christmas became a nostalgic anthem during a period of World War, especially for soldiers and families separated by the circumstances of the conflict. However, the song’s popularity has lost ground in comparison to more recent songs, such as All I Want for Christmas Is You and Last Christmas, especially on digital platforms and among younger audiences. On Spotify, for example, White Christmas does not often appear in the top 5 most played Christmas songs, but this does not diminish its historical and cultural impact.

George Michael’s Christmas anthem turns 40 in 2024

George Michael loved Christmas and sadly passed away on December 25, 2016. As a hitmaker, he easily created songs that were quickly memorized and, at the beginning of Wham!‘s career, it was a skill used with a clearly commercial purpose. This is exactly the case with Last Christmas, which was included on the group’s first album in 1984 and is still one of the band’s biggest hits.

It is obviously one of the most popular songs at the end of the year, with versions by Taylor Swift and Alanis Morissette being played ad nauseam.

Last Christmas opened the international market for Wham!, especially the United States. Interestingly, two years after the Emma Thompson film, it reached number one in 2021, sort of returning to being a Christmas anthem, gaining popularity over time.

The biggest of the moment: Mariah Carey

All I Want for Christmas Is You is recognized as the best-selling Christmas song by a female artist and one of the best-selling in music history, remaining in the Top 10 on Spotify Global, demonstrating its continued popularity.

Released in 1994, Mariah Carey‘s 4th album, the song was written in 15 minutes and was created by a decision by the singer who did not want to make an album with only classics. In 2021, the song was played on Spotify a billion times, remembering that every time the song is played, Mariah earns 1 US cent in royalties. In 2020 alone, she made almost two million more dollars without leaving home. And this does not include sales of physical albums or licensing.

With three decades behind her, it can finally be said that All I Want for Christmas Is You is already a traditional Christmas song. And who can resist it?

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