If We Must
Le sigh, let's do this.
The final hurrah for 2025 contemporary pop hits having any relevance on the Official UK Singles Chart is upon us, as from now until the end of the year it is all about the (mostly) golden oldies.
That means one final bite (for now) at the cherry for Taylor Swift as The Fate Of Ophelia closes out its current run with a fourth consecutive and seventh in total week at No.1. That is finally enough to make the song the biggest chart hit of her career, surpassing the No.1 run of 2022 hit Anti-Hero which could "only" manage six weeks at the summit before it too, ironically, fell victim to the festive rush.
No.2 for a second week is Raye's Where Is My Husband. The gap between the two tracks widened slightly after last week, the British star some 4,500 units behind her American counterpart. Who knows, battle between the pair may well be rejoined in January, although Fate Of Ophelia is set to fall to ACR and is by no means guaranteed to get reset in the new year. But for now it is certainly the end of this particular summit duel.
Snap Out Of It
Make me. The reason for this finality is that this week, as usual, the cork finally came out of the Christmas bottle. Perhaps it is the calendar flipping over to December, Advent for many seen as the proper start to the season. Perhaps it is radio stations breaking out their Christmas formats. Whatever the cause, this is the week that the seasonal favourites start to assert themselves for real. Things this year you may note have been slightly off the pace compared to past years, but that is largely down to the way the calendar has fallen. Christmas Day is later in the chart cycle this year than at any other time, and given people seem to turn to their Christmas playlists like clockwork, the impact of that has come a day later than last year, and several days later than it was in 2022 and 2023. Although, as we shall see, this hasn't stopped many hits from landing far higher up the chart than they are usually wont to do at this time in December.
But that still all means the big guns are where they are expected to be. Five of this week's Top 10 hits are Christmas songs. Last Christmas is No.3, All I Want For Christmas Is You is No.4, with Brenda Lee's version of Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree rocketing to No.6. The first two of these have both had their own spells at No.1 in recent years, and for all we know could take turns again this year. The 60s classic though still has a target to aim for. Last year it peaked at No.4 to reach its highest chart placing ever for the second time in three years. Is Top 3 on the cards this time around?
What A Beautiful Sight
Meanwhile, just behind are two 21st century recordings whose status as favourites is surely only down to high rotation by Amazon and Spotify. But they are consistently now amongst the biggest each year. Underneath The Tree by Kelly Clarkson is No.9, this after it made the Top 10 for the first time ever last year after repeatedly missing out in the recent past. It has an all-time peak of No.7 to aim for. Meanwhile Santa Tell Me by Ariana Grande is No.10 - this too notably a far higher position than it normally is. It has reached No.8 in each of the last two years, but notably only during the final push in the final chart of the year.
It is worth noting that there is one more Top 10 berth available for Christmas songs this year. Merry Christmas by Ed Sheeran and Elton John was No.1 in 2021, No.3 in 2022, No.4 in 2023 and (briefly) No.9 last year before being shunted onto perma-ACR a week later to eventually "peak" at No.29. This then will be the first year since release it will be absent from the upper end of the chart, although Top 40 seems well within its grasp. It is No.47 as of right now.
Reminds Me Of You
Once more it seems only appropriate to note Olivia Dean's Man I Need, shunted down to No.8 by Christmas songs but once again with a chart sale of just over 26,000 that means she would easily still be No.1 but for the track's ACR status. Her consolation is to witness the quite glorious Art Of Loving album return to the summit of its own chart for the first time since the start of October in its week of release. But as expected, Christmas by Michael Buble is now No.4 as it edges towards being No.1 for the fifth time in six years.
Sleigh Bells. Ring.
I'd be here until the new year listing every single Christmas song that has hoven into view, but there are a few notable newer ones that are able to take advantage of the fact that all the older ones are stuck on permanent ACR. That's to the benefit of Laufey's recording of Winter Wonderland which is still less than three years old and so was entitled to a reset and has its streams counted for full strength. No.26 in 2023 and No.27 in 2024, it this week re-enters at a brand new peak of No.18.
Early sales flashes suggested a potentially benchmark-setting chart position for what seems certain to end up as the biggest of this year's Amazon Originals - newer recordings that once more benefit from SCR status and every year threaten to be part of the Xmas No.1 conversation. Kylie Minogue's XMAS didn’t quite have the legs to make it through the week and can only jump 64-24. But make no mistake, this is Top 10 bound, especially as its video premieres in time for next week's chart. Watch out too for Shake The Snow Globe by Gwen Stefani, another Amazon-sponsored hit which takes a bow at No.52 and again will benefit not only from lean-back playlist streaming but also its SCR status.
There are 23 festive songs in the Top 40 with the Yule Log total in the Top 100 now reaching 43 - two more than in this week last year but still down from the record of 55 set in 2023 - when we must once again note this specific chart came out two days further into December.
Catching Breath Moment
Peering through the mist at what is left of contemporary hits, note the not insignificant rise of I Run by Haven featuring Kaitlin Aragon. It is officially No.21 this week, and while I have to break my own rule by doing a "what if" chart ahead of the final week of the year, take note that absent Christmas songs it would comfortably be this week's No.11 hit. This is the last time I'll mention it, but mark your cards now. If this emerges at or near the No.1 position in the first chart of 2026 nobody should be surprised at all.
The week's other two new Top 40 entries are - bizarrely - returning non-festive older hits. End Of Beginning by DJO, a No.4 hit back in March, is back on the Top 40 for the first time since the spring as it re-awakens at No.34 after being granted as reset. Djo himself is of course Stranger Things star Joe Keery and his hit record winks back into life following the streaming debut of the first part of the final series of the cult hit. And inevitably that is also the reason for the re-arrival of Kate Bush's 1985 single Running Up That Hill which further features in the plot of the show and is back at No.37 three and a half years after its use in Season 4 saw it go on a memorable journey to No.1.
Wrapping Up Pun
Count the weeks then to the end of the year. This is Week 49 in the charts universe, meaning there are just three more left:
Week 50 surveys December 5th-11th and is published next Friday, December 12th.
Week 51 surveys December 12th-18th and will crown the official Xmas No.1 on Friday, December 19th.
Week 52 however is the big one, its survey period being December 19th-25th thus neatly capturing the entire streaming universe at the moment Christmas songs reach their crescendo. That one gets written about in a food coma, I won't pretend otherwise.
After that everything literally resets. The chart survey for December 26th-January 1st and published on January 2nd will be Week 1 of 2026 and will be characterised by an almost total absence of Christmas songs. And on which chart, barring a shock, either Raye or Haven will be No.1. But predictions like that can go off in your face. I've got the burns to prove it.
