Christmas Hit Songs: How Much Can a Christmas Song Earn Money?
It is a well-accepted fact that a single that becomes a huge Christmas success will bring good fortune to its creator.
That fact served as the inspiration for Nick Hornby’s book About A Boy and its 2002 film version, in which Hugh Grant’s character Will Freeman lives a life of luxury and laziness supported by never-ending royalties from a 1950s Christmas hit songs written by his father.
A Christmas hit, the sort that swirls around our mind every December (please stop), may set you up for life; it’s “like winning the jackpot every December 25th for the rest of your life,” according to Noddy Holder. Holder, Slade’s main vocalist, and the band’s often-forgotten bassist Jim Lea composed Merry Christmas Everybody (Lea authored the chorus), which went to No. 1 in the UK during Christmas in both 1973 and 1989.
According to the British Performing Rights Society (PRS), it is the top Christmas hit songs in the world, and royalties are projected to be worth almost €1.17 million (£1 million) each year.
That must be genuine, since it was mentioned in a Channel 5 show in 2016 (Eamonn & Ruth: A Million Pound Christmas). According to Channel 5, Mariah Carey’s 1994 All I Want For Christmas earns over €469,000 (£400,000) (its popularity in 2003 is undoubtedly boosted by its use in Love, Actually), and Wham’s Last Christmas (famously beaten to the top spot in 1984 by the Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?) earns €352,510 (£300,000).
Aside from those 2016 projections, the website Celebrity Net Worth published a list of the most lucrative Christmas hit songs UK in both annual and cumulative royalties in December 2020. These were their names:
Top-Grossing Christmas Tunes (Yearly Royalties)
- Merry Christmas, Everyone (1973): €745,000
- The Pogues: New York Fairytale (1987): €560,000
- All I Want for Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey (1994): €530,000
- Last Christmas (1984), Wham! : €445,000
- Do They Know It’s Christmas? (1984): €115,000
All-Time Highest-Earning Christmas Tunes
- White Christmas by Irving Berlin (1940). Earnings forecast: €57 million
- All I Want For Christmas Is You, by Mariah Carey and Walter Afanasieff (1994). Earnings forecast: €53 million
- Haven Gillespie and Fred J Coots: Santa Claus Is Arriving (1934). Earnings forecast: €44 million
- Mel Torme: The Christmas Songs (aka Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) (1944). Earnings forecast: €40 million
- Paul McCartney: Merry Christmas (1979). Earnings forecast: €35 million
Wrap Up
This blog discusses the how much a Christmas hit songs earn money yearly or Christmas day. How these songs become a favorite list for the people now a days especially in Christmas.
