The Christmas number one race - and how to win it

This year's Christmas number one single will be unwrapped on Friday, with a mixture of old favourites, new efforts and wild cards all in the running.

Last year, Wham! classic Last Christmas topped the yuletide singles chart, remarkably for the first time since its release in 1984, when the original Band Aid kept it off the number one spot.

As is tradition, the festive number one will be announced on BBC Radio 1's chart show from 16:00 GMT on the Friday before Christmas.

At the time of writing, a stocking full of artists - naughty and nice - are hoping to top the list.

Wham!'s hit is the frontrunner after reclaiming the top spot in the last chart before the Christmas one, as people streamed it to get into the festive spirit. It has also been reissued on CD and 12-inch vinyl for its 40th anniversary for the final week of the chart race, giving it a further boost.

Another seasonal staple, Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas, is not far behind.

Also in this year's mix are Brenda Lee's golden oldie Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree and the latest incarnation of Band Aid.

They're ed by a new festive tune by Tom Grennan, while songs by Ariana Grande and Kelly Clarkson have established themselves as returning Christmas classics.

Or the chart crown could go to something non-Christmassy - like recent hits by Gracie Abrams, Rose and Bruno Mars, or the fast-rising Lola Young.

There was a long period when the Christmas number one was reserved for the latest X Factor winner - seven times between 2005-14 - or novelty charity-fundraising sausage-roll enthusiast LadBaby, a five-time victor between 2018-22.

And just like with buying gifts, the key for any artists involved now, according to Official Chart Company boss Martin Talbot, is to step into Christmas with confidence and a strategy, and to go early.

"The singles market is very much dominated by streaming these days, in general , throughout the year," he says.

"But the Christmas market is the one market where you can sell a lot of physical [copies and] a lot of s and actually make a big difference. Because people want to buy gifts.

"That's where Wham! will do really well this year."

Physical or sales count for much more than streams in the chart in the digital era.

"The other thing is, if you've got a charity record, let's not be shy about it," Talbot notes.

That's an adage not lost on Bob Geldof and the Band Aid team, who are going again with their own 40th anniversary Ultimate Mix, which has made headlines this time after Ed Sheeran said he would have preferred for his vocals not to have been used again because of the song's portrayal of Africa.

"When people engage with charity records, they're not doing it because they specifically want to listen to the charity record over and over again, Talbot notes.

"Streaming doesn't really work." Instead, he says: "It's all about voting. And you cast your vote by buying a or by buying physical products."

East 17, Reverend and the Makers and The Celebs are all also having a go in aid of various charities this year, as are South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue.

Mariah's slow-burning 1994 anthem finally topped the UK chart for the first time in 2020, returning to the summit in 2022.

Yet despite it being screeched by revellers across the country every December, the unofficial queen of Christmas (her bid to trademark that moniker was denied by US authorities) has never been at the top of the UK chart in Christmas week itself.

"It was the first Christmas song I ever wrote and I was just thinking about all the things that I really did want at Christmas," she recently told Rylan in a BBC interview.

"I guess I turned it into, if there's something that you love, it means more than all that stuff." Aww.

Her tune, like Wham!'s and Band Aid's, has benefitted from being heavily promoted by streaming services like Spotify, Apple and Amazon on their top Christmas playlists.