The final chart of the year covers the streaming period from 20 to 26 December, which means it covers the heaviest days of Christmas streaming. The one post-Christmas day makes no difference to that, and what we get is a chart in which the Christmas records surge even further, shouldering everything else aside. On top of that, the two biggest non-Christmas records both get hit by the downweighting rule this week, and drop straight out of the top 20 as a result. It’s a weird chart.

1. Wham! – “Last Christmas”

This is reassuringly normal, though. “Last Christmas” spends its third week at number 1 this year, and its tenth in total. It will be gone next week. So will all of the new entries listed below – and there are new entries, courtesy of the festive playlists.

30. Darlene Love – “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”

This charted for the first time in 2018, when it reached an all-time peak of 22. It’s been back most years since (2020 was the exception), usually landing in the 29-31 range. Love’s only other solo hit in the UK was “All Alone on Christmas” from the soundtrack of Home Alone 2, which reached number 31 at Christmas 1992. She was also the lead singer on “He’s a Rebel” by the Crystals (number 19 in 1962). I say “by the Crystals”, but “credited to the Crystals” would be more accurate – that particular track was recorded by Love’s group the Blossoms under their name because the real Crystals were off on tour at the time.

31. Mark Ambor – “Run Rudolph Run”

This is a Spotify exclusive – the streaming version is not identical to the acoustic version in the video above, but it’s not wildly different either. The original is by Chuck Berry, and it scraped the bottom of the top 40 at Christmas 1963. Ambor had a number 11 hit earlier in the year with “Belong Together”.

The “exclusive” tracks have two advantages over other Christmas songs. They’re not back catalogue, so they aren’t subject to downweighting. And their respective streaming services will tend to feed them onto playlists or just autoplay them as the next track. Of course, that’s partially cancelled out by the fact that they’re only on one service. Still, there’s an interesting question as to whether this sort of play is really what the singles chart is meant to be measuring. The Christmas charts are driven to a large extent by people just putting on playlists curated by the streaming services, and a case can be made that this sort of listening shouldn’t count towards the singles chart – not because it drowns the chart in back catalogue once a year, but simply because it’s more akin to radio airplay than to selected listening. Whether it’s practically possible to filter streams by that criterion is another matter, of course.

32. Nat King Cole – “The Christmas Song”

This is an all-time peak – it charted for the first time two years ago at 35, and got to 34 last year.

35. Laufey – “Santa Baby”

Laufey also has “Christmas Magic” at number 13 and “Winter Wonderland” at 27, so she’s having a very good year. Kylie Minogue’s cover got to number 31 at Christmas 2020, but the audience for a more traditional arrangement seems to have been split this year between her version at number 83 and the Eartha Kitt original at 59.

36. Justin Bieber – “Mistletoe”

I thought we might have seen the back of this, but apparently not. It reached number 21 on release in 2011, and its chart place has been slowly declining over the last few years.

37. John Williams – “Carol of the Bells”

Um… okay. This has never charted before. Despite the credit to John Williams, it’s an arrangement of a song written by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in 1914, and first translated (loosely) into English in 1936. It’s John Williams’ third top 40 credit, following “Cavatina” from The Deer Hunter (number 13 in 1979) and “Theme from E.T.” (number 17 in 1982).

38. Kesha – “Holiday Road”

Another Spotify exclusive. This is Kesha’s first appearance in the top 40 in the 2020s – her last hit was “Praying” , which reached number 27 in 2017. It’s a surprisingly good synthpop cover of a track recorded by Lindsey Buckingham in 1983 for the soundtrack of National Lampoon’s Vacation, which has never been a hit in this country.

39. Cher – “DJ Play a Christmas Song”

This reached number 18 on release last year. Since it’s less than three years old, it’ll be automatically reset from downweighting when its sales surge at Christmas, so it’s not on a level playing field with other back catalogue hits.

40. Perry Como – “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”

The Michael Bublé version is at number 14, but some people are also going for the Perry Como original, recorded in 1951. It hasn’t made the top 40 before, but Como was a regular presence on the charts in the fifties, with fourteen top ten hits, including two number 1s.

This week’s climbers… deep breath.

• “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey climbs 3-2 at the last moment, to match last year’s position.
• “It Can’t Be Christmas” by Tom Grennan climbs 4-3, making it his biggest hit. It’s the highest placed new release.
• “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee climbs 6-4, matching its all time peak from two years ago.
• “Jingle Bell Rock” by Bobby Helms climbs 8-5, a new all-time peak – the previous one was number 7 two years ago.
• “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl climbs 10-6. It got to 4 last year.
• “Underneath the Tree” by Kelly Clarkson climbs 11-7, which is a new peak – in previous years, it hasn’t got above 12.
• “Santa Tell Me” by Ariana Grande climbs 9-8, matching last year’s all-time peak.
• “Step into Christmas” by Elton John climbs 15-10, returning it to the top 10 for the first time since Christmas 2020. Its all time peak is 8. Last year it only reached 16 so this is a big step up.
• “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by Andy Williams climbs 13-11. It got to 9 last year.
• “Merry Christmas Everyone” by Shakin’ Stevens climbs 14-12. It got to 10 last year.
• “Christmas Magic” by Laufey climbs 19-13.
• “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” by Michael Bublé climbs 17-14. It made the top 10 last year.
• “Sleigh Ride” by the Ronettes climbs 22-15, a new record – its previous peak was 20.
• “Wonderful Christmastime” by Paul McCartney climbs 18-16, marginally a new peak for the streaming era – it got to 17 both two and three years ago.
• “Feliz Navidad” by José Feliciano climbs 21-17, which is a new peak.
• “Driving Home for Christmas” by Chris Rea climbs 25-19, matching last year.
• “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!” by Dean Martin climbs 24-20. It reached 13 last year.
• “I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday” by Wizzard climbs 28-22 – higher than last year’s 25.
• “Holly Jolly Christmas” by Michael Bublé climbs 27-23, just short of last year’s 21.
• “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” by John Lennon & Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band featuring the Harlem Community Choir – never forget the Harlem Community Choir – climbs 29-24, still five places below last year.
• “Merry Xmas Everybody” by Slade climbs 30-26, same as two years ago (and six places higher than last year).
• “Winter Wonderland” by Laufey climbs 40-27.
• “One More Sleep” by Leona Lewis climbs 36-34. This one definitely has declining places year on year: 8, 15, 21, , 20, 25, 29, 34.

The nine tracks leaving the top 40 will surely be back next week, but for completeness, here they are:

• “The Days” by Chrystal
• “Defying Gravity” by Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande
• “Die with a Smile” by Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars
• “Bed Chem” by Sabrina Carpenter”
• “Sailor Song” by Gigi Perez
• “Freezing This Christmas” by Sir Starmer & The Granny Harmers. Actually, this Christmas-themed protest record won’t be back – it had a single week at 37.
• “What is this Feeling” by Ariana Grande & Cynthia Erivo
• “Dirty” by KSI
• “Timeless” by the Weeknd & Playboi Carti

Without the Christmas songs, the top 10 would look like this:

1. (1) Gracie Abrams – “That’s So True”
2. (2) Rosé & Bruno Mars – “APT”
3. (3) Lola Young – “Messy”
4. (5) Chrystal – “The Days”
5. (4) Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande – “Defying Gravity”
6. (7) Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars – “Die With a Smile”
7. (10) Sabrina Carpenter – “Bed Chem”
8. (8) Gigi Perez – “Sailor Song”
9. RE Myles Smith – “Nice to Meet You”
10. RE Billie Eilish – “Birds of a Feather”

On the album chart, “Christmas” by Michael Bublé is number 1 for a seventh non-consecutive week. It also had a single week last year, and the year before that. Nobody is mad enough to release a new album in Christmas week, so there are no new entries at all.