Christmas number two singles in the UK are those that are second in the UK Singles Chart in the week in which Christmas Day falls. Every year in the UK Singles Chart, there is a highly publicised race for the Christmas Number One spot. This is regarded as "the most important one of the year"[1] due to single sales reaching a peak during the week before Christmas. It is a hugely publicised chart, with bets being offered on who will top the chart.
Many songs miss out on the top spot at Christmas, instead finishing second and as a result. Examples of this include the 1987 Christmas chart, when "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues was number two, beaten by the Pet Shop Boys' cover of "Always on My Mind", and in 1984, where "Last Christmas" by Wham! was second to Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?". Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You," now considered a Christmas standard both in the UK and in Carey's native United States, was stopped at number two upon its release in 1994 while the UK's East 17's "Stay Another Day" took first prize. These three songs, despite all finishing at second on the Christmas charts, rank at or near the top of the Performing Rights Society's annual list of the UK's most played holiday songs (the three songs ranked one to three on the 2010 list), whereas of the songs that beat them, only "Do They Know It's Christmas?" appears on a regular basis.[2] Even John Lennon's last single, the posthumously released "(Just Like) Starting Over," was bumped from the Christmas number-one by "There's No One Quite Like Grandma," a song from the St Winifred's School Choir.[3]
The only group to have both Christmas numbers 1 and 2 in the same year is The Beatles, a feat they achieved twice, in 1963 and 1967. George Michael is the only artist to have been a Christmas number one and number two the same year in different groups (Band Aid at number 1 and Wham! at number 2 in 1984).
In recent years the Christmas Number One has been dominated by reality shows such as Popstars: The Rivals and The X Factor, with the winners of the shows heading straight to Number One in the week before Christmas. In 2007, bookmakers started taking bets on who Christmas number two would be instead[4]. X Factor winners finished in second place in 2009 and 2011.
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Tracks marked * did top the chart either in the run-up to, or shortly after, Christmas.
The number-ones and number-twos have also been tracked on the UK Official Download Chart since its launch in 2004. The #1 and #2 songs for the overall singles chart matched the corresponding songs on the downloads chart in 2008, 2009 and 2010, but the #2 songs have not matched any other year.
Songs that have charted at #2 on the UK Official Download Chart at Christmas, but did not chart at #2 on the UK Singles Chart, are as follows:
The X Factor has been a greater impedence to the Christmas number-one in neighboring Ireland, where the winners of the show have charted at number one every year since 2006. Notable Christmas number twos in Ireland include 2010's "Horse Outside" by The Rubberbandits and 2011's "Downtown," a collaboration between The Saw Doctors and Petula Clark (Clark recorded the original version in 1964). (See also: List of Christmas number one singles (Ireland))