The Most Popular Christmas Songs in Each State [2022]

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 26 Christmas songs evaluated from last year's Christmas Billboard Hot 100, 18 different songs were most popular in at least one U.S. state.

The most popular holiday song in each state
State	Song (2022)
Alabama	Santa Baby
Alaska	Jingle Bell Rock
Arizona	Feliz Navidad
Arkansas	Run Rudolph Run
California	Feliz Navidad
Colorado	It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Connecticut	Underneath the Tree
Delaware	A Holly Jolly Christmas
District of Columbia	Happy Holiday/The Holiday Season
Florida	Feliz Navidad
Georgia	Santa Baby
Hawaii	Last Christmas
Idaho	Santa Baby
Illinois	It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Indiana	Run Rudolph Run
Iowa	Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
Kansas	Jingle Bell Rock
Kentucky	Run Rudolph Run
Louisiana	Santa Baby
Maine	Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
Maryland	The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)
Massachusetts	Last Christmas
Michigan	The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)
Minnesota	Santa Baby
Mississippi	Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Missouri	Santa Baby
Montana	Wonderful Christmastime
Nebraska	Jingle Bell Rock
Nevada	Feliz Navidad
New Hampshire	It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas
New Jersey	Underneath the Tree
New Mexico	Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
New York	Underneath the Tree
North Carolina	It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
North Dakota	Wonderful Christmastime
Ohio	Underneath the Tree
Oklahoma	Santa Baby
Oregon	I'll Be Home for Christmas
Pennsylvania	(There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays
Rhode Island	Santa Baby
South Carolina	Run Rudolph Run
South Dakota	Jingle Bell Rock
Tennessee	It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Texas	Feliz Navidad
Utah	A Holly Jolly Christmas
Vermont	White Christmas
Virginia	It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Washington	Last Christmas
West Virginia	Jingle Bell Rock
Wisconsin	A Holly Jolly Christmas
Wyoming	Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

The 1953 classic “Santa Baby,” sung by the legendary Eartha Kitt, was the most popular song in eight different states. That’s the most states of any song on our list.

Three other songs took the top spot in at least five states: “Jingle Bell Rock,” “It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” and Jose Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad.”

While every song mentioned so far is at least 50 years old, there is one song released in the last decade that stood out in the results: Kelly Clarkson’s 2013 song “Underneath the Tree.” This song is on its way to becoming a modern classic, as it was the most popular Christmas song in four different states.

“Underneath the Tree” was also the most popular Christmas song in the Northeast region of the United States, but each of the other three regions favored older songs. “Jingle Bell Rock” was tops in the Midwest, “Santa Baby” claimed the crown in the South, and “Feliz Navidad” is the preferred holiday tune for people living out West.

The most annoying holiday songs, according to Americans

Of course, not every holiday song is beloved by everyone. To find out which songs people are sick of hearing, we asked 1,250 U.S. adults to tell us which Christmas song they find the most annoying.

One song that feels unavoidable at Christmastime is Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You.” It climbed to first on the Billboard Hot 100 during each of the past three Christmas seasons.

Despite its massive overall popularity, this song wasn’t the most popular song in any state (according to Google Trends). But it was named the most annoying Christmas song in our survey, which may mean people feel the song is overplayed during the holidays.

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,” a song that was actually one of the most popular across the country, according to Google Trends, but one that is also played often enough 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 cashback 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 every Christmas song on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week of Christmas 2021. 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 9, 2022.

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