Christmas Number 1 2022 Contenders: Mariah Carey and Wham!'s Christmas classics shouldn't be counted out

Sometimes, you can't discount the classics. 

Here at Official Charts, we see a lot of Christmas songs re-enter the chart every single December, but over the last half a decade, two in particular have proven to have a sticking power like no other. 

Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You and Wham!'s Last Christmas, perhaps more than another festive track from the last 30 years, have entered into the undeniable canon of Christmas classics that will be sung, adored and loved for generations to come. 

So it's only fair that these two festive chart titans are given the importance they deserve; and that fact that, perhaps this more than any year, they have a very real chance of becoming the UK's Official Christmas Number 1. 

Watch Mariah Carey accept her Number 1 Award for All I Want For Christmas Is You in 2020:

MORE: The Official Christmas Number 1 2022 contenders in full

The fact is that neither Mariah nor Wham! (Andrew Ridgeley and the late, much-missed George Michael) have ever achieved a Christmas Number 1...but 2022 could very well be their year. 

Why? Well, because for the last two weeks All I Want For Christmas Is You and Last Christmas have been playing musical chairs on the Official Singles Chart, both occupying the Number 1 slot one after the other.

Mariah was first, granting All I Want For Christmas Is You it's second stint at Number 1, having first reached the top in 2020, 26 years after its release. 

And this week, it was Wham!'s turn. Last Christmas also gained a second go-around at the top spot; originally released in 1984, Last Christmas once held the record for the best-selling single never to have hit Number 1 in the UK; famously kept at Number 2 by Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? it first went to Number 1 on New Year’s Day 2021, at the time breaking a chart record (now held by Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill) for the longest time a track has taken to top the Singles Chart. 

While both Mariah and Wham! have some serious competition in the form of LadBaby (who are bent on acheiving a record-breaking UK chart first with a potential fifth Official Christmas Number 1 single with Food Aid featuring Martin Lewis) and Raye (whose magnificent Escapism. has become the highest-charting non-Christmas song in the UK for the last couple of weeks), their chances shouldn't be underestimated.

Case in point: Last Christmas the most-streamed track in the UK this week, with over 11.4 million streams. 

But who gets the most important Number 1 of the year is up to you. This year's #XmasNo1 race has already started, so they time is now to back your favourite. It's all still to play for!

The 2022 Official Christmas Number 1 will be announced on Friday, December 23. The full Christmas Top 40 will be counted down on BBC Radio 1's Official Chart Show with Jack Saunders from 4pm.

The full Top 100 Official Christmas Singles Chart and Albums Chart will be published on OfficialCharts.com from 5.45pm.