Merry Christmas everyone Slade (1973)

Mary’s Boy Child/Oh my Lord Boney M (1978)

Do you know it’s Christmas? Pavement (1984, 1989, 2004)

Fairy tales of New York The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl (1987)

Mistletoe and wine Cliff Richard (1988)

Christmas party number 1 Zig and Zag (1990)

Merry Christmas Ed Sheeran and Elton John (2021)

You may not be able to avoid them this time of year, but Christmas songs don’t dominate the charts as much as you might think.

In the 61 years of the Irish singles chart, only eight genuine Christmas songs have made it to number one. Mariah Carey’s classic “All I Want For Christmas Is You” isn’t one of them, nor is Wham’s “Last Christmas” or Bing’s “White Christmas,” the best-selling holiday favorite of all time.

Tommy Drennan, the Limerick showband legend who passed away earlier this year, had the honor of bringing the first Christmas song to the top of the charts in 1971. His version of “O Holy Night” was unusual for the time in that it included a recording of him as an 11-year-old soprano boy singing a contemporary version with his band The Monarchs.

There are no prizes for naming the most successful Irish number one at Christmas. Supergroup Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” has reached the top three times – the original in 1984, the Band Aid II version for Ethiopia in 1989 and the Band Aid 20th anniversary version in 2004.

Luckily, The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl’s ‘Fairytale Of New York’ is one of the Irish Christmas charts’ elite, reaching number one here when it was released in 1987.

Unfortunately, it didn’t top the charts in the UK and was famously beaten to the top spot for the Christmas period by the Pet Shop Boys’ version of ‘Always On My Mind’.

Shane MacGowan reportedly said afterwards: “We were beaten by two queens and a drum machine.”

Most of the “Christmas” number one hits at Christmas came in the 1970s and 1980s. After Zig and Zag’s novelty hit in 1990, the festive chart-topper has only had a Christmas theme twice: Band Aid in 2004 and the pairing of Ed Sheeran and Elton John in 2021.

Of course, many will argue that we have made some notable omissions here. East 17’s 1994 Christmas hit “Stay Another Day” is often considered a Christmas song, although the only festive connection is the addition of some bells and the video of the band in their fur-trimmed white parkas. In fact the song has a very sad theme as it was written by East 17’s Tony Mortimer about his brother Ollie’s suicide.

One could also argue that the spirit of Christmas is evoked in two a cappella number ones: the Flying Pickets’ version of Yazoo’s “Only You” from 1983 and The Housemartins’ “Caravan Of Love” from 1983 Year 1986. Both would definitely have made it to number one at a different time of year?

Likewise, it’s hard to imagine that Paul McCarthy’s 1977 smash hit Mull Of Kintyre would have been such a success without the Christmas market boom. It was number one in Ireland for ten weeks and was one of the best-selling singles of all time in the United Kingdom.