8 Christmas Songs With The Biggest Annual Earnings

It is common knowledge that Christmas music is one of the most lucrative genres of music and that some of the genre's biggest successes may produce enough royalty revenue to last a person their whole life. Indeed, contemporary musicians such as Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, and Kylie Minogue have all released dedicated holiday albums that are practically guaranteed cash cows thanks to loyal fans celebrating with their idols for the season.
However, none are raking in royalties as reliably as the ten perennial festive favorites featured on this list. We look at which christmas songs with the biggest annual earnings, and we've even done you the favor of embedding the musical classics so that you can hum along with the list while you read it.

8 Christmas Songs With The Biggest Annual Earnings

8. ‘2000 Miles’ (1983)

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Even though the music video for this 1980s ballad by The Pretenders takes place in the snow, the song itself is not meant to be celebratory. If Smooth Radio is to be believed, it's a memorial to the band's early days and the late James Honeyman-Scott, who passed away at 25 from heart failure caused by cocaine use.
Chrissie Hynde, now 71 years old, explained the song's significance in an interview with the Dutch show Countdown in 1983: "It's about someone who's gone... and let's just assume it's Father Christmas." In 2012, the Telegraph reported an annual revenue of USD 125,000.

7. ‘Stop The Cavalry’ (1978)

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Radio stations play Lewie's "Stop the Cavalry" every December, yet the song has nothing to do with the holiday season. The singer told Gold Radio UK that he makes around $150,000 a year from it and that he wrote it as an anti-war statement. The renowned refrain, "I wish I was at home for Christmas," follows references to nuclear fallout shelters, the light brigade, and the brave troops of the Crimean conflict.

6. ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ (1979)

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McCartney, now 80 years old, makes roughly US$315,000 a year from "Wonderful Christmastime," a holiday classic he wrote and performed with The Beatles.

5. ‘Last Christmas’

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When a song over four decades after its original release gets recorded by contemporary musicians like Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Gwen Stefani, and Rita Ora, you know you've struck a chord. George Michael (1963-2016), Andrew Ridgeley (59), and the rest of the English boy band Wham! still, pull in an astounding $365,000 per year from their classic love song.

4. ‘White Christmas’

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White Christmas" is widely considered America's favorite Christmas song, and everyone from Michael Bublé and Frank Sinatra to Lady Gaga and Elvis Presley has covered it. Bing Crosby initially made the ballad famous.
However, it was originally written by Irving Berlin. Irving Berlin, the great lyricist, wrote this song for the film Holiday Inn, which has a tragic history. It has been theorized that Berlin wrote the song as a memorial to his late three-week-old baby and an expression of his enduring grief at the loss of his child, as reported by Country Living.

3. ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’

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In 1994, Mariah Carey told Smooth Radio that this ubiquitous holiday classic was an ode to a "very conventional, old-fashioned Christmas." It has a mushy title and everything, including Santa, presents, a tree, and reindeer, that people associate with Christmas. Earnings from her renowned Christmas hymn average $485,000. This is enough to ensure the pop diva's financial security until the new year begins.

2. ‘Fairytale of New York’

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This anti-Christmas song has consistently made $485,000 in sales over the past five years. Although the song's initial lyrics were deemed problematic owing to its explicit language, the tune was adored for its bitter, emotionally relevant tone and went down especially well at rowdier Christmas events since it depicted a couple's wintertime arguing.

1. ‘Merry Christmas, Everybody’

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The English rock band ranks first, bringing in an estimated $1.2 million annually. Nine highest-paid coaches in the history of The Voice, listed by net worth as of October 18, 2022
Singer/songwriter Noddy Holder, now 76, says the song was inspired by the hardships of a traditional British family Christmas during the Great Depression. He told British media in 2007 that "the miners had gone on strike, along with the gravediggers, the bakers, and nearly everybody." A lot of folks, including myself, needed a pick-me-up, and I think that's why this happened.