(Credits: Far Out / Rodion Kutsaiev / Eric Krull)
Fri 28 November 2025 2:00, UK
Hugh Grant’s cinematic characters aren’t supposed to be pillars of rousing influence. But every Christmas, there comes a point where I find myself trudging through my local supermarket and feel worryingly akin to the famously grumpy British actor.
There is a moment in About A Boy where Grant’s character recoils at the oncoming barrage of truly terrible Christmas music. Sure, I might not be recoiling because my dad wrote a number one Christmas hit like the film’s protagonist, but the mere sound of Mariah Carey’s voice in November provokes a similar response from me: “shit, it can’t be!”
It’s not that I am a Scrooge; in fact, there are several Christmas traditions I absolutely love. But banding around the fireplace to sing half-baked melodies in the name of St Nicholas simply isn’t one of them. Music for me is a separate entity from the festive period, and there are only two songs that might allow me to budge on that: ‘Feliz Navidad’ and ‘Fairytale Of New York’, with the latter being a natural compatriot to the pint of Guinness that is perennially in my hand over Christmas.
But despite being buried under bell-laden songs during the Christmas period, it’s rarely the festive hit that tops the charts at the end of the year. Over the years, pop behemoths have dominated the charts over Christmas and have reserved the release of their best songs for that time of the year, for they simply know how coveted the Christmas number one spot is. After all, that’s what Simon Cowell’s entire X-Factor strategy was based around.
But despite leveraging the public’s attitude for pop tat during the Christmas period, old sleazy Syco never managed to bag himself three consecutive number one hits. But if it makes it better for Cowell, those names that have just gone to prove that the Christmas chart hat trick isn’t just for any old artist, it’s reserved for music royalty.
So, who are the two acts to have three Christmas number ones in a row?
Given the fact I am mentioning music royalty, it will come as no surprise that one of the artists to achieve the feat is The Beatles. Pioneers of pop music and dominators of the charts, it’s no surprise that upon their emergence in 1963, they came out on top at Christmas. Their records would have simply been the must-have gift come the festive period, and so their music simply flew off the shelves.
The three songs that bagged them that honour, were 1963’s ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, 1964’s ‘I Feel Fine’ and 1965’s ‘Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out’, proving they were a dominant force right from the outset.
It was a title that wasn’t matched until 1998, when the Spice Girls achieved three consecutive Christmas number ones between 1996 and 1998, with ‘2 Become 1’, ‘Too Much’ and ‘Goodbye’. But if you want to get an idea of just how quickly we’ve slid into pop commercialism, there is one artist who tops both The Beatles and the Spice Girls, achieving four consecutive Christmas number ones between 2018 to 2021 and that was LadBaby.
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