Well, it’s the second week of December, what did you expect?

1. Wham! – “Last Christmas”

“Last Christmas” returns to number 1 for its eleventh week in total. It reached number 2 on release at Christmas 1984 (because that was the year of Band Aid), but it’s reached number 1in 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. As a back catalogue Christmas single, it’s on permanent downweighting – Christmas records are expressly excluded from the normal rules that allow old records to come off downweighting if they have a surge of interest – but it really makes no difference. If “Last Christmas” wasn’t being downweighted, it would have beaten the number 2 single (Raye’s “Where is my Husband”) by more than two to one.

There must now be a generation for whom George Michael is just the guy who made “Last Christmas”, just as nobody remembers any of Wizzard’s other songs, despite the fact that two of them were number ones.

Since we already had the massive influx of Christmas records last week, there’s not much room for further new entries, but there are a few.

19. Dean Martin – “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!”

The original version of “Let it Snow!” was recorded in 1945 by Vaughan Monroe. Dean Martin’s version dates from 1959, but wasn’t a hit in the UK at the time. It charted for the first time in 2019 and reached an all-time peak of number 13 in 2023. Last year it only managed number 20, so it’s already ahead of that.

Dean Martin died on Christmas Day in 1995. He had a string of top ten hits in the 1950s, including the number 1 “Memories are Made of This”.

33. Wizzard – “I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday” 

Originally a number 4 hit at Christmas 1973, the same year that they had number 1 hits with “See my Baby Jive” and “Angel Fingers”. A reissue in 1984 got to number 23. It’s been back every year since 2011, and its all-time peak was number 10 in 2019. Its positions have tailed off since then, in what seems to be a general fading of early 70s Christmas staples: it reached 12 in 2020, 15 in 2021, 19 in 2022, 25 in 2023, and 22 last year.

39. Nat King Cole – “The Christmas Song”

Nat King Cole recorded several versions of this track, the first in 1946, but the 1961 version is generally taken as the standard. Cole had 14 top ten hits in the 1950s and early 60s, including three number 2 singles. “The Christmas Song” didn’t make the singles top 40 until 2023, and its all time peak was number 32 last year. Cole died of lung cancer in 1965 at the age of 45.

40. Gwen Stefani – “Shake the Snow Globe”

This is actually new. It’s on the soundtrack of an Amazon Prime movie, and it’s been shoved on a re-issue of her 2017 Christmas album. Gwen Stefani hasn’t had a top 40 hit since “4 in the Morning” in 2007.

This week’s climbers:

• “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey climbs 4-3.
• “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee climbs 6-4, which matches its all-time peak from 2022 and 2024.
• “Underneath the Tree” by Kelly Clarkson climbs 9-5. That’s a new peak, beating last year’s number 7.
• “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl climbs 12-8.
• “Jingle Bell Rock” by Bobby Helms climbs 14-10. It reached number 5 last year.
• “Merry Christmas Everyone” by Shakin’ Stevens climbs 16-12.
• “I Run” by HAVEN. featuring Kaitlin Aragon climbs 21-14. As an actual new release managing to swim against the tide, this looks very well placed for the new year.
• “Do They Know it’s Christmas” by Band Aid climbs 22-15. It reached 8 last year.
• “XMAS” by Kylie Minogue climbs 24-16. As a new release, this isn’t on ACR, so it’s not on a level playing field with the other Christmas singles. There’s now a video on YouTube.
• “Step into Christmas” by Elton John climbs 20-18. It reached 10 last year.
• “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by Andy Williams climbs 23-20. It reached 11 last year (and 9 the year before that).
• “Wonderful Christmastime” by Paul McCartney climbs 25-21. It reached 16 last year.
• “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” by John & Yoko and the Plastic Ono Band climbs 35-23. That’s already beaten last year’s peak of number 24. Its streaming-era peak is 18.
• “Sleigh Ride” by the Ronettes climbs 28-25. It reached 15 last year.
• “Driving Home for Christmas” by Chris Rea climbs 40-26. It reached 19 last year.
• “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” by Michael Bublé climbs 29-27. It reached 14 last year.
• “End of Beginning” by Djo climbs 34-29 – a surprise, since this charted last week on the back of the new series of Stranger Things coming out. Not a track I’d have expected to overcome the flood.
• “Feliz Navidad” by José Feliciano climbs 33-30. It reached 17 last year.
• “Snowman” by Sia climbs 32-31. It reached 18 last year.
• “Holly Jolly Christmas” by Michael Bublé climbs 38-35. It reached 23 last year.

We have another two weeks of this to go. Christmas Day is a Thursday this year, so next week’s chart will determine the Christmas number 1 (i.e., the reigning number 1 on Christmas day), but the chart after will have the busiest week of Christmas streaming. If past years are anything to go by, everyone will then stop listening to Christmas records on Boxing Day.

The top 10 non-Christmas records (and thus the tracks best placed to rush into that void right now) are:

1. Raye – “Where is my Husband” (number 2)
2. Olivia Dean – “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” (number 6)
3. Olivia Dean – “Man I Need” (number 7)
4. Sam Fender & Olivia Dean – “Rein Me In” (number 9)
5. Dave & Tems – “Raindance” (number 13)
6. HAVEN. featuring Kaitlin Aragon – “I Run” (number 14)
7. Taylor Swift – “The Fate of Ophelia” (number 17 – it went to ACR this week)
8. HUNTR/X – “Golden” (number 22)
9. Sienna Spiro – “Die on this Hill” (number 28)
10. Djo – “End of Beginning” (number 29)

The four tracks leaving the top 40 are:

• “Let Alone the One You Love” by Olivia Dean, which had two weeks, peaking at 21.
• “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush, with a single week at 37.
• “How It’s Done” by HUNTR/X, which reached number 9 and (thanks to being disqualified by the 3-song rule for several months) got 11 weeks on the top 40.
• “Opalite” by Taylor Swift, which peaked at 2 and had 9 weeks.

On the album chart:

1. Kylie Minogue – “Kylie Christmas (Fully Wrapped)”

This is a reissue of her 2015 Christmas album, now including the current single “XMAS” (if you’re on Amazon) and some other new tracks and, oddly, actually dropping some tracks that were on earlier editions. Not unreasonably, the chart compilers are treating it as a new album. It reached number 12 on its first release, and now becomes her 11th number 1 album – the others are “Kylie” (1988), “Enjoy Yourself” (1989), “Greatest Hits” (1992), “Fever” (2001), “Aphrodite” (2010), “Golden” (2018), “Step Back in Time – the Definitive Kylie Minogue” (2019), “Disco” (2020), “Tension” (2023) and “Tension II” (2024).

3. Sam Fender – “People Watching”

This is actually a climber from 34, but the huge jump is due to the deluxe edition coming out.

12. Olivia Rodrigo – “Live from Glastonbury (A BBC Recording)”

Exactly what it sounds like.

22. Depeche Mode – “Memento Mori – Mexico City”

Live version of their last album, which reached number 2 in 2023.

27. The Reytons – “Roll the Dice”

This is a 23 minute EP rather than a full album, which explains what it’s doing down here at number 27 – the last three Reytons albums all made the top 5.

33. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – “Live God”

And another live version of a studio album. This is a performance of “Wild God”, which reached number 5 last year.