Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You vs. Wham's Last Christmas: Which Christmas classic wins?

We put the two festive favourites head-to-head in an Official Chart battle.
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Choosing your favourite Christmas song is a bit like picking out a new festive jumper: they're all vaguely similar and have a very limited window of use each year - yet they're extremely, unequivocally important. 

And while there are plenty of Christmas classics to enjoy, when it comes to the Official Chart there are two obvious favourites that out-twinkle the rest: Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You, and Last Christmas by Wham!.

MORE: Every Official Christmas Number 1 ever

Famously, neither song has reached Number 1 in the UK, but chart history could at long last change this week, as both battle it out for the top spot on the Official Singles Chart.

Each track has a storied history on the Official Chart. Mariah's single lost out on the Christmas Number 1 to East 17 in 1994, while Wham! took second place to Band Aid's unstoppable Do They Know It's Christmas? in 1984.

Recent years have seen both lead the charge on the annual resurgence of festive songs in the Top 40, propelled by Mariah's recent coronation as the Queen of Christmas, and fan-led campaigns for Wham! following George's untimely death on Christmas Day in 2016.

Below, we put Christmas classics head-to-head, delving into their UK sales, streams and other celebrated chart stats. Who wins is for you to decide...

Official Chart peak

Both AIWFCIY and Last Christmas have reached Number 2 on the Official Singles Chart, but Mariah has held the runner-up slot for more weeks overall, seven compared to six.

MORE: This year's Official Christmas Number 1 contenders

Official all-time sales 

Based on pure sales only (downloads and physical single sales), both are million sellers and rank among the UK's best-sellers of all-time. Still, Wham! win this one by a considerable margin, fast-approaching 2 million copies sold, making it the UK's best-selling single not to reach Number 1 - though it does have the advantage of being released ten years before Mariah's song.

Official UK streams

Both boast impressive numbers, particularly for songs that pre-date the streaming era (by 20 years for Mariah and 30 years for Wham!). Mariah's figure has the added sparkle of being the UK's most-streamed Christmas song ever.

Weeks on the Official Singles Chart Top 100

Last year saw AIWFCIY break a landmark 100 weeks on the Official Chart, though Last Christmas isn't far behind. 

Biggest week of UK streams

Last Christmas wins this round, racking up a mightily festive 17.1 million UK plays in a single week last December. The song currently holds the Official Chart record for record for the most streams in a week.

Related artists

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Maria Johnson Dyar

0

Wham ❄☃️❄ I love my George 🤶🎅

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Phillip John Heslop

0

Crazy but it's fairytale of New York for me.

However I reckon Mariah will be number one as the song is just an uplifting Christmas cracker

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Bengy

0

Can we have a comparison between The Beatles and The Rolling Stones?

Then Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard.

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Küll

2

The Pogues!

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Janice

1

Wham please!

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thierry henon

3

MARIAH CAREY please!!