‘It’s not Christmas until you hear Noddy Holder screaming it is’

One of the biggest traditions of the festive period is the Christmas song.

It is always a sure sign that the jolly big man with the white beard in the red-and-white suit is on the way when Bing Crosby comes on the radio singing ‘White Christmas’ or Michael Buble is brought out of hibernation to sing holiday favourites of yesteryear.

Come this time of year, it is hard to escape Mariah Carey or The Pogues blasting out of some passing car or in every supermarket.

The history of the biggest-selling British and Irish singles is littered with Christmas number ones. In the UK charts, six of the top ten best-selling songs ever are all Christmas number ones. And the biggest one of them all is the original Band-Aid singing, ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ which sold a staggering 3,802,066 copies in 1984.

Part of the lore behind Christmas number ones is the great chart battles that have ensued. Perhaps the most infamous occurred when Simon Cowell’s X-Factor contestants went up against an unlikely festive time favourite in Rage Against the Machine’s Killing In The Name.

Rage Against The Machine ended up taking the top spot and donating their profits to homeless charities.

Meanwhile, the undeniable king of the Christmas song is Cliff Richard. Cliff has a remarkable four Christmas number ones, spanning across four decades. He has released a new song this year hoping to take the top spot again come December 25.

Every family has a favourite and so does every country. But in a poll conducted across Britain by Channel 4 and then one throughout Ireland via RTE both named Fairytale Of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl as the nation’s favourite.

We wanted to do our own little bit of research here at the Tyrone Herald, so we went onto the streets of Omagh to find out what is Tyrone’s favourite Christmas song.