We (Apparently) Need a Little Christmas Right This Very Minute
Americans started listening to more Christmas music earlier than ever before this year. Why America's growing stress and uncertainty has sent us seeking comfort in Bing Crosby.
You know how a lot of families let the kids open one Christmas present early? For years, the musical present America gives itself early has been Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Since streaming became mainstream in the late 2010s, Americans start playing Carey’s Christmas wish right after Halloween. It’s been our official song for an early kickoff of the holiday season.
This year, America ripped open half the damn tree early.
As soon as the last Trick ‘r’ Treater left, we started playing five different Christmas songs enough for them to make the Spotify 200 chart that first week of November, alongside today’s big hits from Taylor Swift, Alex Warren, and those K-Pop Demon Hunters. Joining Mariah this year in streaming right after Halloween is Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”, “Last Christmas” from Wham!, Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” and Ariana Grande’s 2014 song “Santa Tell Me”
By the second week of November, 14 holiday classics were among the Spotify 200—up from only three songs back in 2022.
Not only are we breaking out more Christmas songs before Thanksgiving, but we’re also collectively playing those songs a lot more often during November than we have in years past.
Keep in mind, we’re not even examining TV commercials or when the mall switches to Christmas Muzak. We’re only looking at streaming—specifically Spotify’s top 200 songs—where people are actually choosing to play more Christmas music for themselves before they’ve even bought the Thanksgiving turkey.
How did we go from the Twelve Days of Christmas to the two months of Christmas music?
All Christmas radio becomes a tradition after 9/11
Back in the 20th century, radio stations would sprinkle in a song or two each hour starting in December, increasing gradually each week. Non-stop Christmas music didn’t start until 6:00 P.M. Christmas Eve.
By Noon Christmas day---BAM! The Christmas music was all gone.
A particularly legendary Christmas Eve offering was New York’s famous Yule Log: Channel 11 WPIX-TV broadcast video of a fire in a fireplace at Gracie Mansion, so apartment dwelling Manhattans could enjoy a yuletide fire on their TVs, while 102 WPIX-FM simulcast the non-stop Christ music in stereo.
The seeds of today’s two months of Christmas germinated not in North Pole, Alaska, but Phoenix, Arizona.
In 1996, Soft Rock station 99.9 KEZ noticed that it was losing listeners during December to a small AM station that normally played Frank Sinatra and Rosemary Clooney for snowbird retirees. That station was playing non-stop Christmas music starting after Thanksgiving, so 99.9 KEZ wondered what would happen if they followed suit on their big FM signal with non-stop Holiday favorites starting on Black Friday.
It was a hit.
Five years later, America was still in shock from 9/11. That Christmas, many would board an airplane for the first time since the attacks.
By then, the behemoth now called iHeart Media owned 99.9 KEZ, along with many other stations that the whole office could agree on. Noting their success in Phoenix, they launched non-stop Christmas music on 75 Adult Contemporary stations nationwide.
Turns out the comfort and nostalgia of Christmas music was exactly what America needed in 2001. Audience figures surged for stations playing Christmas music, attracting listeners who normally preferred other stations.
Ratings for stations playing all-Christmas music further increased during the Great Recession, and yet again in the late 2010s as political divisiveness grew. By 2019, 99.9 KEZ garnered an astounding 19.2-percent share of all radio listening in Phoenix during the holiday season. (Normally, they only get about 8-percent.)
You may have noticed a trend here: When the going gets tough, the tough get jolly.
Seasonal streaming surges during the pandemic.
During 2020, Americans started Christmas extra early. Total streams for Christmas songs in the Spotify 200 jumped 74-percent during the 2nd week of November 2020 compared to the same week in 2019, then almost doubled for the week before Thanksgiving. In 2021, with the feeling that the pandemic was under control, November Christmas music streaming largely receded to 2019 levels.
While November Christmas music streaming surged in 2020, our consumption of Christmas music during December only rose modestly from 2019 through 2020. (Note that December 2020 had one more week than did December 2019).
The stress of social distancing mainly made us start Christmas early.
In 2022 and 2023, total streams for Christmas songs in the Spotify 200 rose back to Pandemic year levels for the week before Thanksgiving and surpassed them during the week of Thanksgiving. However, we were still waiting until mid-November to start the Holiday tunes.
Then in 2024, Christmas music streaming for November jumped 63-percent compared to 2023. Christmas music streams in the Spotify 200 during the very first week of November jumped four times compared to 2023.
Was something stressful happening last November?
2025: Worse than COVID?
Between political and social divisiveness, inflation, a shaky job market, and global instability, 2025 has been a rough year on us. I suspect that’s why we whipped out the Christmas music earlier this year than in any previous year. Christmas music streams for the week immediately after Halloween grew another 55-percent over 2024, then doubled over last year for the second week in November
After surging in 2024, Christmas music consumption in the Spotify 200 for the week before and during Thanksgiving remained unchanged in 2025 compared to last year.
The story here isn’t how much more Christmas music we’re consuming during the holiday season--although that is also a big story: From 2019 through 2024, total streaming for Christmas songs in the Spotify 200 for the entire holiday season grew 2.7 times, with especially strong growth in 2022 and 2023:
The story for 2024 and 2025 is how much earlier we started our Christmas music streaming.
On-demand consumption for Christmas music from Thanksgiving through Christmas week grew about 2.6 times from 2019 through 2024—but Christmas music streaming in November through Thanksgiving Day from 2019 through 2025 has quadrupled.
Nostalgia for a time we never knew
While many older adults have adopted music streaming in recent years, listeners under age 45 remain the heaviest users of streaming, with 25- to 44-year-olds representing the majority of streaming music service subscribers.
Take a look at the 29 songs that made the Spotify 200 so far this season. With folks under 50 more likely to listen to music on Spotify, you might expect some newer Christmas songs to replace those old Chestnuts among the Millennials who dominate streaming.
You’d be wrong.
Only four songs are from contemporary artists form this Century, namely Sia’s “Snowman,” Justin Bieber’s “Mistletoe,” “Underneath the Tree,” from Kelly Clarkson, and Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me.”
As I noted in It’s The Most Nostalgic Time of the Year, the vast majority of Christmas music is from musical styles that disappeared from popular culture decades ago.
Among the remaining 25 titles,
14 are from pre Rock-era crooners such as Andy Williams, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby (plus Michael Bublé, who should have been born fifty years earlier.)
Another six (6) songs are from early Rock ‘n’ Roll artists including Brenda Lee, Bobby Helms, the Ronettes, and Elvis Presley who disappeared from Oldies radio long before The Beatles, Monkees, or Supremes did.
Finally, there’s that one (1) song from José Feliciano (“Feliz Navidad”): While his career was in the late ‘60s, he appealed to hip adults more than groovy teens.
That leaves only Wham!, The Eagles, Paul McCartney, and Mariah Carey as artists you’re still likely to hear on your Classic Hits station on December 26th.,
Those pre-rock-era Standards and early Rock ‘n’ Roll songs originally appealed to members of the Greatest (G.I.) Generation and the Silent Generation. Born before 1943, those Americans have now largely left us. The Millennials, Xers, and Gen Z listeners who are streaming Bing and Brenda are nostalgic for a time they never experienced.
For today’s youngest Christmas music listeners, their parents—and even their grandparents—didn’t grow up with Perry Como or Chuck Berry.
Ask someone under 30 what genre of music Nat King Cole, Andy Williams, or Brenda Lee created. They will likely tell you Christmas music.
This nostalgia for a time we never knew is akin to how the Generation X writers conjured mid-century modern business life in the TV series Mad Men: The dark and ironic interpretation of people;s relationships is anachronistic—but the fascination for the mid-century modern aesthetic reflects a yearning for a time we also anachronistically imagine was easier.
Notice what’s missing?
For those inclined to urge remembering the reason for the season, something might strike you amiss about this list of 29 Christmas songs.
None of them are religious.
Historically, we tend to save the most somber and sacred tunes until the big day is close at hand, focusing on the lighter and more upbeat songs earlier in the season.
Even on Christmas Day (2024) itself, if you examine the 200 most-played songs on Spotify, you have to scroll down to #42 to begin finding sacred-themed Christmas titles such as “Do You Hear What I Hear,” “Oh Holy Night.” and “Joy To The World.” Songs #1 through #41 are all about Santa, snow and the secular seasonal spirit.
While we’re increasingly seeking comfort in the past, we decreasingly seeking comfort in our faith—at least in the Christmas tunes we’re streaming.
I’ll leave that issue to Graphs About Religion
What awaits us?
Based on Thanksgiving Week Christmas music consumption on Spotify being comparable to last year, December 2025 is on course to see Holiday streaming also comparable to 2024, with 2025’s growth coming exclusively during November. With 2025’s news cycle, however, I wouldn’t rule out anything…
FREE updates on Christmas Music Streaming.
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Data source for this post: Spotify Charts (2019-2025 for the USA): https://charts.spotify.com/charts/overview/us