The Best Christmas Songs of the 21st Century
Songwriters have kept writing new Christmas songs since 2000, and a handful already sound like they were always there, so the ranking is yours to settle. Originals only, songs first released from 2000 on, so Michael Bublé's 2011 take on It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas, a 1951 song, is out. A song's title or words must name Santa, the Nativity or Christmas; winter and Hanukkah songs naming none are out. Eleven publications count: Slant's and Billboard's century lists, InsideHook's and Vulture's originals since 1994, Rolling Stone's 2010 to 2019 list, and all-time lists from Paste, Esquire, the Guardian, Pitchfork, USA TODAY, Billboard and Global; Billboard's two lists, and Global's Heart and Smooth, count once each. A list dated before a song, or whose years exclude it, doesn't count. One entry per song, its best-known recording, none if Spotify lacks it. Seating takes two eligible publications and the upper tier three or more; other seats are lower tier, in an order your votes set. Two songs from this century sit on the all-time Christmas list, not here.
Kacey Musgraves — Christmas Makes Me Cry (2016) is #1 on “The Best Christmas Songs of the 21st Century”.
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Kacey Musgraves — Christmas Makes Me Cry (2016)
Written with Shane McAnally and Brandy Clark, it is one of four originals on A Very Kacey Christmas, where the other eight tracks are standards, and Musgraves sang it on the CMA's Country Christmas special in 2016. Billboard's century list puts it fifteenth and InsideHook and Esquire list it too, making it named by three of its eleven; the link is track six of that album, not a 2019 Christmas Show recording.
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Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings — Ain't No Chimneys in the Projects (2009)
A child with no chimney at home asks how Santa can get in, and her mother answers with a story about a chimney that appears while she sleeps; NPR traces it to Jones's own childhood. Daptone first issued it on a 7-inch. InsideHook, Vulture at tenth and the Guardian at twenty-ninth make it named by three of its ten. Spotify's two-track single, Holiday Breakdown '09 on the flip, holds this 2:20 take, not the 2015 album copy.
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Ariana Grande — Santa Tell Me (2014)
Savan Kotecha got the idea in the shower and saved a voice note, then wrote it with Ilya Salmanzadeh and Grande, and it was cut at MXM Studios in Stockholm. Republic released it on 24 November 2014, and in 2024 it reached number 5 on the Hot 100, which Wikipedia calls a first for a 21st-century holiday song. Slant, InsideHook, Vulture, Billboard and Global have it, named by five of its eleven, and the link is the one-track 2014 single.
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The Darkness — Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End) (2003)
Justin Hawkins sings it in falsetto over a choir from Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College in New Cross, his mother's old school, with Bob Ezrin producing. Out on 15 December 2003, it peaked at 2 on the UK chart, just under 5,000 first-week sales behind Mad World. Vulture puts it ninth, and with Global and Esquire it is named by three of its ten, while the link plays the 2003 studio recording, not the 2018 live one.
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Kanye West — Christmas in Harlem (2010)
It began as a GOOD Fridays giveaway crowded with guests such as Cam'ron, Pusha T and Big Sean, and the iTunes single of 17 December 2010 kept West, CyHi the Prynce and Teyana Taylor over Hit-Boy's Marvin Gaye samples. InsideHook, Rolling Stone, Billboard and Pitchfork make it named by four of its eleven; Billboard and Rolling Stone mean the single, Pitchfork the posse cut, so the single is the recording linked.
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Mariah Carey — Oh Santa! (2010)
Written and produced by Carey with Jermaine Dupri and Bryan-Michael Cox, it was the lead single from Merry Christmas II You, out on 1 October 2010, and it held number 1 on Billboard's adult contemporary chart for four weeks. Vulture ranks it second and Billboard's century list sixth, two placings that leave it named by two of its eleven, and the link plays track two of that album rather than the 2020 remake with Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson.
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Coldplay — Christmas Lights (2010)
Issued as a download on 1 December 2010, it was a standalone song rather than part of Mylo Xyloto, with Brian Eno among its producers. Mat Whitecross shot the video on the South Bank beside the Thames, with Simon Pegg as one of three violin-playing Elvis impersonators. Slant places it fourth and Billboard eighteenth, and that has it named by two of its eleven. Linked from the 2010 single itself rather than the 2016 Spotify London live take.
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Leona Lewis — One More Sleep (2013)
Its lyric counts down the days to Christmas and to being with her lover again. Richard Stannard co-wrote and co-produced it, and in December 2013 it reached number 3 in Britain, about 300 copies short of second. Billboard's century list has it twelfth and Global names it too: named by two of its eleven, with Spotify's earliest single of it, dated 5 November 2013, as the copy linked.
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Carly Rae Jepsen — It's Not Christmas Till Somebody Cries (2020)
The subject is a family gathering going wrong, expectation against reality; Benjamin Romans and CJ Baran produced it with Jepsen among the writers. The single came out on 30 October 2020, after several of the counted lists were printed, so InsideHook and Vulture, at eighth, leave it named by two of its seven. Linked from that 2020 single, not the later Carly's Christmas Classics EP.
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Tracey Thorn — Tinsel and Lights (2012)
The title song of Thorn's 2012 Christmas album is hers with no co-writer, on a record Ewan Pearson produced for Strange Feeling and Merge, and Slant's entry hears it reworking Christmas in New York until the singer falls for the holiday again. Slant has it fifteenth and Vulture thirteenth, named by two of its eleven, and the link is track nine of the original twelve-track album rather than the expanded iTunes edition.
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Bleachers — Merry Christmas, Please Don't Call (2024)
Jack Antonoff played it for years at his Ally Coalition Talent Show benefit in New York and posted a long snippet in 2023 before the single arrived on 13 November 2024; Stereogum described it as gloomy synthpop about the long tail of a falling-out. Billboard at sixteenth and Paste at thirtieth name it while Global does not, so it is named by two of its three, the publications dated after its release; its one-track Dirty Hit single carries the link.
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Jonas Brothers — Like It's Christmas (2019)
Eight writers are credited, the three brothers among them, and Republic released it on 8 November 2019; that December it topped Billboard's adult contemporary chart, and in the chart week ending 3 January 2026 it climbed to 27 on the Hot 100. Rolling Stone and Billboard, at thirteenth, have it named by two of its ten, and the 2019 single is linked rather than the live version on a 2025 film soundtrack.
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Lloyd — She's All I Want for Christmas (2011)
Motion Family directed the video, which casts Lloyd as a Christmas tree seller who bonds with a woman whose boyfriend is lost in his phone, then delivers her tree. Named by two of its eleven, it has Vulture's third place among originals since 1994 and an Esquire listing, and it plays from Spotify's one-track Interscope single, dated 2011 there.
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Kylie Minogue — Every Day's Like Christmas (2015)
Chris Martin co-wrote it with Stargate, who produced, and it is track seven of the standard Kylie Christmas, out on 13 November 2015. A Stock Aitken Waterman remix followed on 2 December, but the link plays the ballad as the album has it. Slant ranks it sixth and Billboard twenty-sixth, which together have it named by two of its eleven. The same take sits on the deluxe and Snow Queen editions.
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Alessia Cara — Make It to Christmas (2019)
A standalone single on 8 November 2019, it reached 89 in Canada. InsideHook files it under 2020, the year of her Holiday Stuff EP, while Rolling Stone's decade list treats it as a 2019 song, and between them it is named by two of its ten. Spotify prints the title Make It To Christmas on the 2019 single linked here, not on the Stripped version.
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!!! — And Anyway It's Christmas (2013)
In a Stereogum post of 5 December 2013, Chris DeVille called it a "smooth and heartsick disco ballad", its twinkly percussion and keyboards passing for bells. Vulture places it thirty-first and Billboard's century list twenty-ninth, while Billboard's all-time list adds a ninety-fourth that counts with it as one masthead, and the count stays at named by two of its eleven. Linked from the two-track Warp single, its dub mix on the second track.
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Sally Shapiro — Anorak Christmas (2006)
Johan Agebjörn produced the Swedish duo's Italo disco debut Disco Romance, released in Europe on 22 November 2006 with this as track five, and a single followed on 4 December. Vulture ranks it thirty-fifth and the Guardian forty-second, the pair behind its count: named by two of its ten. Linked from the album, since no single surfaced on Spotify and its several remixes are other recordings.
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Sufjan Stevens — Christmas in the Room (2012)
A 2008 holiday collection Stevens gave friends held it and leaked, Stereogum reported, but it was officially released on Silver & Gold, Asthmatic Kitty's five-EP box of 13 November 2012, on the Christmas Infinity Voyage volume. InsideHook, which prints 2008, and Pitchfork at forty-seventh name it; with 2012 as its year, it is named by two of its eleven. Spotify carries it inside the full box.
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Sufjan Stevens — That Was the Worst Christmas Ever! (2006)
Asthmatic Kitty released it in its 2006 box Songs for Christmas, a five-EP set that came with comics, stickers and an essay by Rick Moody. Billboard's all-time staff list ranks it seventy-fifth and Paste thirty-fifth; Rolling Stone's decade list cannot count a 2006 release, so the song is named by two of its ten. Spotify has the complete box, and the link plays the song from there.
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