The Most Popular Christmas Songs in Each State [2023]

Christmas music is part of holiday business for retailers. After all, the songs include dozens of classics that most people have heard every winter for their entire lives. Sentimental, sure, but also a tactic to get people to spend more money in stores.

To get a better sense of which songs are most and least likely to brighten shoppers’ moods, FinanceBuzz used Google Trends to find the most popular Christmas song in every state. We also surveyed more than 1,200 U.S. adults on the most annoying Christmas songs.

Most popular songs in each state

The states have a variety of favorite Christmas tunes. Of the 25 Christmas songs evaluated from last year's Christmas Billboard Hot 100, 21 different songs were most popular in at least one U.S. state.

The most popular holiday song in each state

State	Song (2023)
Alabama	Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree
Alaska	Wonderful Christmastime
Arizona	It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
Arkansas	Run Rudolph Run
California	It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas
Colorado	Jingle Bell Rock
Connecticut	All I Want for Christmas Is You
Delaware	All I Want for Christmas Is You
District of Columbia	All I Want for Christmas Is You
Florida	Feliz Navidad
Georgia	All I Want for Christmas Is You
Hawaii	Last Christmas
Idaho	White Christmas
Illinois	All I Want for Christmas Is You
Indiana	Run Rudolph Run
Iowa	Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
Kansas	Jingle Bells
Kentucky	Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree
Louisiana	Run Rudolph Run
Maine	White Christmas
Maryland	All I Want for Christmas Is You
Massachusetts	Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town
Michigan	Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)
Minnesota	Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
Mississippi	Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)
Missouri	It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Montana	Jingle Bells
Nebraska	Deck the Halls
Nevada	Jingle Bell Rock
New Hampshire	Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town
New Jersey	All I Want for Christmas Is You
New Mexico	Feliz Navidad
New York	All I Want for Christmas Is You
North Carolina	Jingle Bells
North Dakota	Run Rudolph Run
Ohio	Underneath the Tree
Oklahoma	Blue Christmas
Oregon	Deck the Halls
Pennsylvania	All I Want for Christmas Is You
Rhode Island	Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
South Carolina	The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)
South Dakota	Deck the Halls
Tennessee	Blue Christmas
Texas	Feliz Navidad
Utah	The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)
Vermont	Wonderful Christmastime
Virginia	All I Want for Christmas Is You
Washington	It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
West Virginia	It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Wisconsin	A Holly Jolly Christmas
Wyoming	A Holly Jolly Christmas

Mariah Carey’s 1994 hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has become an all-time holiday classic in the three decades since it was first released, and has climbed to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 during each of the past four Christmas seasons. It is also the most popular Christmas song in 10 different states — the most of any song on our list.

Five other songs took the top spot in at least three states: “Run Rudolph Run,” “It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” “Jingle Bells,” “Deck the Halls,” and Jose Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad.”

Given how popular it is around the country, it should come as no surprise that “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is the top song in multiple regions of the country. Mariah’s modern classic is the top song in both the Northeast region of the United States as well as the South.

Out West, “It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” takes the top spot, and four different songs (“Run Rudolph Run,” “Jingle Bells,” “Deck the Halls,” and “A Holly Jolly Christmas”) are tied for the title of most popular song in the Midwest.

The most annoying holiday songs, according to Americans

The downside of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” reaching peak popularity is that for every person who loves the song, there is someone who is sick of hearing it over and over again.

As a result, the uber-popular song was also named the most annoying Christmas song in our survey.

The second-most annoying song is the novelty song “The Chipmunk Song,” also known as “Christmas Don’t Be Late,” sung by Alvin and the Chipmunks. The high-pitched singing on the song definitely isn’t for everyone, so it’s no surprise to see it on this list.

Rounding out the top three is “Feliz Navidad,” another one of the most popular Christmas songs across the country according to Google Trends. Much like “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” this song comes on often enough during the holidays that it could turn off some listeners who think it’s overplayed.

How to shop and save this holiday season

Once Christmas music hits the airwaves, crowded stores and holiday sales are on the way, too. For people doing holiday shopping, here are some tips for saving this Christmas season:

• Download apps that help you save. No matter where you like to shop, there’s probably an app that can save you money. Capital One Shopping, Ibotta, and Honey are some of the best around. They work with tons of stores and websites.
• Get rewarded for your purchases. Make sure to use one of best cash back credit cards to earn points and cash back while crossing items off your shopping list.
• Buy now, pay later. Many retailers partner with buy now, pay later lenders to offer purchase financing. Before you take advantage of it, make sure you understand where you can use buy now, pay later, and how it works.

Methodology

FinanceBuzz collected Google Trends search interest data on the 25 highest-charting Christmas songs on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week of Christmas 2022. For this analysis, we looked at “Search Interest” data for each song in every state.

Search Interest is a metric Google uses that normalizes searches to account for things like population, geography, and search proportionality compared to other terms, and then scales the results to assign a Search Interest score between 0-100.

Data for each song was collected individually. To break ties, songs were compared head-to-head directly within the Trends platform. The time frame for the collected data was set to “Past 5 years.” Data was collected November 16, 2023.

For the list of most annoying holiday songs, FinanceBuzz surveyed 1,250 U.S. adults in November 2022.