Which Christmas song makes the most money? Annual earnings, ranked: from Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ and Paul McCartney’s ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ to Wham!’s ‘Last Christmas’
- Christmas music is loved for its holly-jolly nature, but it’s also proved to be a very lucrative venture for artists, with Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber launching holiday albums
- The biggest festive money-makers however all date from the 1970s and 80s – think perennial party-starters Slade’s ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ and The Pogues’ ‘Fairytale of New York’
Whether you love it or loathe it, Christmas music is a genre that you simply cannot avoid. As soon as November’s up, the classics come flooding in on every speaker, radio station, supermarket, shop, family household – rolling in on the first day of December in their gorging, shameless glory. Call it a guilty pleasure if you will. Even the scrooges can’t resist.
It’s a known fact that Christmas music is one of the biggest money makers and some of the best hits can generate royalty income to last a lifetime. Modern artists like Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber and Kylie Minogue have all launched dedicated holiday albums that are practically guaranteed cash cows thanks to loyal fans celebrating with their idols for the season – but none are raking in royalties as reliably as the 10 perennial festive faves on this list.
So, here STYLE takes a look at which Christmas songs earn the most money annually, and we’ve even done you the favour of embedding the musical hits so you can hum along through the list. Without further ado ...
10. East 17: ‘Stay Another Day’ (1994)
Estimated annual earnings: US$118,000
It’s been nearly three decades since this festive hit was released.
But given that the heart-rending song is about the tragic death of band member Tony Mortimer’s brother, some critics pointed out that it shouldn’t be considered a Christmas song amid its jolly competitors. Either way, the winter-themed tune earns about US$118,000 annually, per the UK’s The Independent (source of all our estimates for this piece, unless otherwise stated).