“Black Friday” marks the official retail lead up until Christmas, but the fourth quarter also signals the return of the Christmas song. While the likes of Death Row Records, Kurtis Blow, and Outkast have all created songs especially for Christmas, there are 10 artists who have consistently rang up sales as December rolls around. Billboard compiled a list of the top-selling holiday songs with the help of Nielsen, and provided a comprehensive catalog of the 10 most downloaded holiday songs.
George Michael’s ’80s rock outfit Wham was the initial entry, with “Last Christmas.” The track, which has also been covered by Taylor Swift, has sold 751,000 downloads.
Puerto Rican crooner Jose Feliciano’s rendition of “Feliz Navidad” also made the list with 808,000 downloads sold.
Justin Bieber came in at fourth on the list with 1.1 million downloads of “Mistletoe,” which was recorded at the height of his pre-scandal popularity, Successfully targeting the tween market and their disposable income has proven to be a win for Bieber regardless of the time of year.
Running away with the top spot was Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” The track has over 3.2 million downloads, and according to Billboard’s staff it “only gets more popular with each passing holiday season.”
“The fact that I wrote “All I Want For Christmas Is You” way back then just by myself in a little room with a Casio keyboard was just this pretty amazing thing,” Carey said in a 2010 promotional interview for her album Merry Christmas II You. “Over the years, people grew to really love it, know it, and always come up to me and tell me how much they loved it.”
You can read the full list of the 10 most downloaded holiday favorites at Billboard.com.
