I* rank** every*** Christmas**** song*****

Last updated on Nov 26, 2021 4 min read

Since 2016, I1 have been endeavoring to rank2 every3 Christmas4 song5.

Here, I port the list from Facebook to my own Web site.

The Songs

  1. O Holy Night [Cantique de Noel]
  2. I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day [“Illsley”]
  3. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
  4. What Child Is This?
  5. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
  6. In The Bleak Midwinter [Gustav Holst tune]
  7. Sleigh Ride
  8. O Little Town Of Bethlehem [“St. Louis” / USA tune]
  9. A Stable Lamp Is Lighted [“Andujar”]
  10. Break Forth, O Beauteous Heav’nly Light
  11. Of The Father’s Love Begotten
  12. Carol Of The Bells
  13. Lo, How A Rose E’er Blooming
  14. Ma’oz Tzur [see The Details]
  15. See Amid the Winter’s Snow
  16. It Came Upon the Midnight Clear [“Carol” / USA tune]
  17. Santa Baby
  18. O Come, All Ye Faithful
  19. Blue Christmas
  20. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
  21. Maria Durch Ein Durnwald Ging [Maria Walks Amid the Thorn]
  22. Sleepers, Wake! [Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme]
  23. Wexford Carol
  24. We Need A Little Christmas
  25. Someday at Christmas
  26. We Three Kings
  27. I’ll Be Home For Christmas
  28. God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen
  29. All I Want For Christmas Is You [which Mariah Carey recorded]
  30. I Wonder As I Wander
  31. River
  32. Noel nouvelet
  33. Some Children See Him
  34. Good King Wenceslas
  35. The First Nowell
  36. Joseph, Who Understood
  37. Ding! Dong! Merrily On High
  38. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)
  39. Angels We Have Heard On High
  40. Coventry Carol
  41. Zat You Santa Claus
  42. Joy To The World
  43. Please Come Home For Christmas
  44. Silver Bells
  45. Silent Night
  46. All I Want For Christmas Is You [which Vince Vance and the Valiants recorded]
  47. Sussex Carol
  48. Christmas Wrapping
  49. Christmas In the Room
  50. It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas
  51. Jingle Bells
  52. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
  53. The Snow Lay On The Ground
  54. Christmas in Hollis
  55. Il est ne, le divin Enfant
  56. Jingle Bell Rock
  57. Good Christian Men, Rejoice [In Dulci Jubilo]
  58. Boar’s Head Carol
  59. Once In Royal David’s City
  60. Run Rudolph Run
  61. Away In A Manger [UK tune]
  62. Feliz Navidad
  63. Do You Hear What I Hear?
  64. Santa Claus Is a Black Man
  65. White Christmas
  66. The Holly And The Ivy
  67. What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?
  68. Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella
  69. Christmas Day [which Dido recorded]
  70. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
  71. (Everybody’s Waiting For) The Man with the Bag
  72. Let It Snow
  73. Love Came Down At Christmas
  74. Christmas Without You
  75. Angels From the Realms Of Glory
  76. Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
  77. It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
  78. I Wish It Was Christmas Today
  79. The Twelve Days of Christmas
  80. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
  81. Deck The Hall
  82. While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night [“Winchester Old”]
  83. This Christmas
  84. I Saw Three Ships
  85. There’s No Place Like Home For The Holidays
  86. You Make It Feel Like Christmas
  87. Dost Thou In a Manger Lie?
  88. Last Christmas
  89. We Wish You A Merry Christmas
  90. Winter Wonderland
  91. Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine
  92. Must Be Santa
  93. Mary, Did You Know?
  94. Christmas by the Bay
  95. Frosty the Snowman
  96. Have A Holly Jolly Christmas
  97. Mele Kelikimaka
  98. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
  99. Wonderful Christmastime
  100. O Christmas Tree
  101. Here Comes Santa Claus
  102. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
  103. Jolly Old St. Nicholas
  104. The Little Drummer Boy
  105. Up On The Housetop

Inf. [theft of entire Christmas by Grinch]

Inf. +

  1. Fairytale of New York
  2. Do They Know It’s Christmas?
  3. The Christmas Shoes
  4. Baby It’s Cold Outside

The Details

  • Jump back up to [^The Songs].

  1. My rankings are, of course, final, unassailable, and authoritative.↩︎

  2. I do not produce a detailed rating, just a ranking.↩︎

  3. Of course, I can’t possibly rank every song. I don’t even know every Christmas song.

    • I’ve relied on suggestions from Facebook friends to fill out the list.
    ↩︎

  4. Including other winter holidays and secular seasonal songs.↩︎

  5. Subject to limits on what is a song:

    • Instrumentals are out. Songs with rarely-heard words (Sleigh Ride) are in.
    • Anthems, motets, and multi-movement works are not ranked.
    • Novelty songs and deep cuts from the Band X Christmas Album are low priorites.
    • Different performances of the same tune and lyrics are not ranked separately.
    • I have chosen the inarguably best [tune] for each set of words with more then one.
    ↩︎
Gordon Arsenoff
Senior Research Specialist

Bayesian. He/him.