Dec 5 | By Lauren Chapman
Christmas time is here! Your favorite holiday songs are returning to the radio, spreading cheer everywhere. From classics like “A Holly Jolly Christmas” and “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” to 90’s hits “All I Want For Christmas” and “Mary, Did You Know?”, Christmas music is setting the holiday mood.
Our team at VerizonSpecials took a look at the most searched Christmas songs by state and compared them to top Billboard Hits, and the results are in.
Interesting Findings:
- “All I Want for Christmas Is You (SuperFestive!)” is the most popular song in our list with 15 states and the District of Columbia searching for the song (Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin, plus DC).
- “White Christmas” is the second most popular song in the list with 9 states searching it most (Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah, and West Virginia).
- This song was written by Irving Berlin for the musical film Holiday INN, released in 1942. “White Christmas” won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 15th Academy Awards.
- The most popular cover (and the world’s best-selling single) is the version by Bing Crosby.
More Interesting Findings:
- The original song “All I Want for Christmas is You” was recorded by Mariah Carey for her fourth studio album, Merry Christmas (1994). The song became a global success, topping the charts in 26 countries.
- In 2011 Carey re-recorded the song as a duet with Justin Bieber for his album Under the Mistletoe. This is known as the “SuperFestive!” version.
- Compared to Harry Styles’s 1,438,009,156 streams of “As It Was”, “All I Want for Christmas (SuperFestive!)” has 1,161,889,962.
- “Blue Christmas” is the third most popular song in our list with 6 states that googled it most: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee)
- Blue Christmas was written by Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson and most famously performed by Elvis Presley.
- “Feliz Navidad” was most searched in six states: California, Florida, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas.
- This song was written in 1970 by Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Jose Feliciano, and it’s now a traditional Spanish Christmas/New Year greeting song.
- With 390,115,793 Spotify streams, Feliz Navidad surpassed popular songs such as “Super Freaky Girl” by Nicki Minaj and “Vegas” by Doja Cat.
- “Winter Wonderland” was most searched in six states: Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, and Oregon.
- The song was written in 1934 by Felix Bernard and Richard Bernhard Smith. Smith was inspired to write the lyrics after seeing an image of Central Park in Honesdale, PA covered in snow. “Winter Wonderland” has been covered by over 200 artists.
- “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” was most searched in Delaware, Alaska, Maine, and South Dakota.
- The song was written in 1943 for the then-upcoming film Meet Me in St. Louis. Frank Sinatra recorded a version of the song with modified lyrics.
- “Last Christmas” was the most searched song in Colorado and Hawaii.
- Last Christmas was written and produced by George Michael and performed by the group Wham!, the English pop duo that consisted of Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. This song was originally released in December 1984 and it has been covered by many artists since.
- “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” is the most searched song in New Hampshire and Wyoming.
- “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” was written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie. The earliest recorded version was by Harry Reser in October 1934.
- Since then, the song has been recorded by many artists, including Bing Crosby, The Jackson Five, Luis Miguel, Michael Buble, The Temptations, Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Diamond, and Mariah Carey.
- “A Holly Jolly Christmas” is the most popular search in the state of Idaho.
- This song is also known as “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas” and it was written by Johnny Marks and most famously performed by Burl Ives. Over the years, this song has become one of the 25 most performed holiday songs
- “Mary, Did You Know?” was the most popular search in the state of Arkansas.
- Mark Lowry wrote the lyrics for this song in 1984 and the music was produced by Buddy Greene in 1991. “Mary, Did You Know?” was originally recorded by Christian artist Michael English; it reached number 6 on CCM Magazine’s Adult Contemporary Chart.
Methodology
Based on articles from Official Charts, Glamour, and Billboard, we gathered a list of the most commonly streamed Christmas songs. We used SemRush, an online marketing platform, to get the ten songs with the highest volume search. Then, we used Google Trends, a website owned by Google that analyzes the popularity of the top search queries over time in each state.
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| State | Song |
|---|---|
| Alabama | Blue Christmas |
| Alaska | Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas |
| Arizona | All I Want For Christmas Is You (SuperFestive!) |
| Arkansas | Mary, Did You Know? |
| California | Feliz Navidad |
| Colorado | Last Christmas |
| Connecticut | All I Want For Christmas Is You (SuperFestive!) |
| Delaware | Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas |
| District of Columbia | All I Want For Christmas Is You (SuperFestive!) |
| Florida | Feliz Navidad |
| Georgia | Blue Christmas |
| Hawaii | Last Christmas |
| Idaho | A Holly Jolly Christmas |
| Illinois | All I Want For Christmas Is You (SuperFestive!) |
| Indiana | White Christmas |
| Iowa | White Christmas |
| Kansas | White Christmas |
| Kentucky | White Christmas |
| Louisiana | All I Want For Christmas Is You (SuperFestive!) |
| Maine | Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas |
| Maryland | All I Want For Christmas Is You (SuperFestive!) |
| Massachusetts | All I Want For Christmas Is You (SuperFestive!) |
| Michigan | Winter Wonderland |
| Minnesota | All I Want For Christmas Is You (SuperFestive!) |
| Mississippi | Blue Christmas |
| Missouri | Winter Wonderland |
| Montana | Feliz Navidad |
| Nebraska | White Christmas |
| Nevada | Feliz Navidad |
| New Hampshire | Santa Claus Is Comin to Town |
| New Jersey | Winter Wonderland |
| New Mexico | Feliz Navidad |
| New York | Winter Wonderland |
| North Carolina | All I Want For Christmas Is You (SuperFestive!) |
| North Dakota | All I Want For Christmas Is You (SuperFestive!) |
| Ohio | White Christmas |
| Oklahoma | Blue Christmas |
| Oregon | Winter Wonderland |
| Pennsylvania | White Christmas |
| Rhode Island | All I Want For Christmas Is You (SuperFestive!) |
| South Carolina | Blue Christmas |
| South Dakota | Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas |
| Tennessee | Blue Christmas |
| Texas | Feliz Navidad |
| Utah | White Christmas |
| Vermont | All I Want For Christmas Is You (SuperFestive!) |
| Virginia | All I Want For Christmas Is You (SuperFestive!) |
| Washington | All I Want For Christmas Is You (SuperFestive!) |
| West Virginia | White Christmas |
| Wisconsin | All I Want For Christmas Is You (SuperFestive!) |
| Wyoming | Santa Claus Is Comin to Town |