This is a list of Christmas number one singles in the Republic of Ireland. Christmas number one singles are those that are at the top of the Irish Singles Chart on Christmas Day. The results are announced on Christmas Eve. The Charts began in 1962 when Elvis Presley won with "Return to Sender". The following year Brendan Bowyer became the first Irish-man to claim top spot. The Beatles, Queen, Spice Girls and Eminem have gained top spot twice while Band Aid have had top spot 3 times. In recent years the charts in Ireland and the UK have been dominated by The X Factor (2005β2008 in UK and 2006βpresent in Ireland), however in 2009 an Internet campaign to get Rage Against the Machine's 1992 single "Killing in the Name" to number one was started. This was successful in the UK. In Ireland it proved unsuccessful and was beaten by X Factor 2009 winner Joe McElderry with "The Climb". Conversely, in 2010, an Irish campaign to get The Rubberbandits to the number-one position led to their song "Horse Outside" reaching just shy of that mark at #2; the song however, failed to break the top 100 of the UK Charts.
The UK and Irish Christmas number ones have often been the same. Twenty-eight of 48 years have seen the same song at number one in the UK and Ireland, and in the years when Ireland has had a different Christmas number 1, this has often been the UK Christmas number 2.