The Surprising Difference Between British and American Christmas Songs

Christmas carols across the Atlantic

Last week, I did a deep dive into the evolution of classic rock. One reader wrote in asking if I could put all of the most recent classic rock songs on a playlist. You can find that playlist here.

This week, we are going to be talking about Christmas music. If you are still on the hunt for a Christmas gift for the music lover in your life, consider ordering a copy of my debut book, Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves. It’s a data-driven history of popular music covering 1958 to 2025.

---

The Surprising Difference Between British and American Christmas Songs

By Chris Dalla Riva

A few months ago, I wrote about the biggest British music stars that never made it in America. That analysis suggested these were the stars that fit that description from each decade:

• 1960s: Billy Fury

• 1970s: Showaddywaddy

• 1980s: Shakin’ Stevens

• 1990s: Blur

• 2000s: Sugababes

When I recycled the content of that post on Instagram, a shocked Briton commented, “Are you really telling me that you don’t listen to Shakin’ Stevens’ ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ all December long?” I had to break the news to this person that I not only had never heard “Merry Christmas Everyone” but that I had no idea who Shakin’ Stevens was.

This exchange got me thinking that if there were artists that were distinctly British—or American—then there might be Christmas songs localized to each side of the Atlantic too. And there were.

Given that Christmas songs dominate streaming services each December, I pulled the recent top charts on Spotify for both the United States and United Kingdom. First, I compared the two lists to see what was charting uniquely in each nation. Second, I cross-referenced the charts to the pop charts in each country to make sure that Spotify wasn’t misleading me.

As an American, I can’t say that all of these songs are completely foreign to me—“Fairytale of New York” gets some play here—but you do not hear any of these songs in regular rotation during the holiday season. That’s half a shame. While I don’t feel the need to hear “Lonely This Christmas” by Mud every December, I’m a little upset “Driving Home for Christmas” isn’t as popular in the US. I’d never heard it until I wrote this piece, but it’s quite good.

Likewise, the American Christmas classics aren’t all unheard of in the United Kingdom. But they are less notable. Gene Autry’s “Here Comes Santa Claus” makes it into the top 40 nearly every Christmas in the US. In the UK, it’s never peaked higher than 90.

Relatedly, some American Christmas classics are actually popular in the United Kingdom, but the canonical recording is by a different artist. Eartha Kitt’s version of “Santa Baby,” for example, has never charted as high as Kylie Minogue’s. Donny Hathaway’s “This Christmas” is often bested by the Jess Glynne rendition.

Beyond differences in specific songs, these two lists also suggest some larger thematic differences. First, America still has a soft spot for Christmas recordings released before 1970. The British, on the other hand, are a bit more contemporary in their tastes. The median American Christmas classic that isn’t big in the United Kingdom was released in 1960. The median British Christmas classic that isn’t big in the United States was released in 1986.

Though these temporal differences explain some of the sonic differences between the holiday classics popular in each nation, it doesn’t completely capture how much more rocking and revelrous British Christmas classics can get. Songs like Wizzard’s “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” and Slade’s “Merry Xmas Everybody” make you realize that songs like “Jingle Bell Rock” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” barely rock at all.

No, I can’t promise that my American ears will ever prefer the smooth croon of Bing Crosby to the raucousness of Shane MacGowan, but maybe this holiday season I’ll trade in my glass of red wine for a pour of whiskey. As they say in the UK, Merry Xmas Everybody!

A New One
"El Muy Grande" by Jack Binkerd
2025 - Midwest Emo

Even though cover songs don’t make the charts frequently anymore, they are endlessly available across the web. Just last week, I came across a video captioned “Michael Jackson if he stayed in Gary, Indiana his whole life.” I turned up the volume to hear a man named Jack Binkerd giving The King of Pop’s “Black or White” the midwest emo treatment, a genre that I have a soft spot for from time to time. Lucky for me, Binkerd had just put out an EP, Tombigbee. I would have loved to hear Jackson cover the EP’s first track, “El Muy Grande.”

An Old One
"Christmas in Killarney" by Bing Crosby
1951 - Irish Folk

My fiancée and I have been spinning Bing Crosby’s classic holiday album Merry Christmas endlessly over the last week. Most of the reason for that is the album’s penultimate track, “Christmas in Killarney.” Neither of us has ever heard this Irish-themed song before, but it is absolutely addicting. As the second least streamed track on Crosby’s classic album, I was sad to find out that nobody else was listening to this song. Let’s rectify that this holiday season.

---

If you enjoyed this piece, consider ordering my book Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves. The book chronicles how I listened to every number one hit in history and used what I learned during the journey to write a data-driven history of popular music from 1958 through today.