Top Christmas Songs by Search

December 13, 2013

Collective Measures
We pit Traditional Carols against New School Xmas Jams in a battle for the most holiday searches. Who will win the holiday battle?!
Old vs New Christmas Songs

Nativity via Jeff Weese on Flickr; Frosty via lissalou66 on Flickr

It’s that time of year when holiday songs flood the stores, filling people with the spirit of the season (or a growing rage, depending). Some places stick to traditional Christmas carols while others choose to play newer songs celebrating the season. But which category has the top Christmas songs? Watch as we pit the Traditional Carols against the New School Xmas Jams in a battle for the most holiday searches!

There are a TON of searches around Christmas songs during December. The keyword phrase “Christmas songs” alone gets 1,220,000 searches in December. 

But which type of Christmas song gets more searches – new or old? Well, “Christmas carol lyrics” and “funny Christmas songs” are tied at 49,500 searches* apiece, so let’s drill down into specific popular songs from each category in some head-to-head battles.

  • Town Battle: “O Little Town of Bethlehem” VS “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”
    • Winner: “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” (201,000 searches to 33,100 searches)
  • Song for the Fellas Battle: “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” VS “Santa Baby”
    • Winner: “Santa Baby” (90,500 searches to 40,500 searches)
  • Bell Battle: “Carol of the Bells” VS “Jingle Bells”
    • Winner: “Jingle Bells” (201,00 searches to 135,000 searches)
  • Green vs Red Battle: “Greensleeves” VS “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”
    • Winner: “Rudolph” (450,000 searches to 33,100 searches)
  • Top Searched Songs: “12 Days of Christmas” VS “White Christmas”
    • Winner: “12 Days of Christmas” (550,000 searches to 450,000 searches)

Final Verdict: New School Xmas Jams! 

Although the Traditional Carols ultimately had the most searched song (12 Days of Christmas), the New School Xmas Jams had a wider variety of search queries for each song, and higher search volume when compared to any other Traditional Carol.

Among the top searched New School Xmas Jams were “Mele Kalikimaka” with 201,000 searches and “I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas” with 165,000 searches (I was shocked too). Of course, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” was in the top 5 searched songs with “301,000” searches.

Merry Listening and to all a Good Song! 

*All search numbers are broad search volume from the month of December, 2012