A playlist of the best Christmas songs ever, ones that need to be on every single Christmas party playlist! This also makes a perfect playlist for any Christmas music games you might want to play!
This post contains affiliate links to products for your convenience. If you purchase via my links, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.
The Best Christmas Songs
There are so many Christmas songs out there these days that it’s hard to keep track. This list is the ultimate list of Christmas songs – only the best of the best! I only included songs that I personally recognize and ones that you’d find on the “best Christmas songs” lists.
I do know quite a bit of Christmas music though so feel free to just use the ones that work best for your group if you think some of them are a bit obscure or not going to be guessed.
Christmas Music Games
Two of my favorite party games are musical ones. In How Do You Doo, players have to sing “Doos” to get other players to guess a song. And in Name that Tune, players have to guess the song title and artist to win points for their team.
I posted about How Do You Doo here and Name that Tune here, so I won’t go into the full instructions now.
Or if you’d rather skip the playlist and see how well people know their Christmas music, this Christmas carol chaos printable game is awesome!
For now, here’s a list of the best Christmas songs that would be perfect for any of these games.
Most Popular Christmas Songs
Since so many people sing the same Christmas songs, I didn’t put artists with these ones for Name That Tune. You can either just use whatever version of the song you already have (and add the artist yourself) or you can play without artists.
I linked to either my favorite or a popular version of the song below, helpful especially if you don’t know all of these songs yourself!
- It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
- Jingle Bell Rock
- You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
- Feliz Navidad
- A Holly Jolly Christmas
- Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
- The Chipmunk Song
- The Christmas Song
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
- It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
- Santa Baby
- Do You Want to Build a Snowman?
- Where Are You Christmas?
- Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
- All I Want For Christmas is You
- 12 Days of Christmas
- The Chanukah Song
- The Dreidel Song
- It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
- Frosty the Snowman
- Angels We Have Heard on High
- Mary, Did You Know?
- Last Christmas
- Wonderful Christmas Time
- Happy Xmas
- Blue Christmas
- The Christmas Shoes
- Linus and Lucy
- Little Saint Nick
- Silent Night
- We Three Kings
- Santa Claus is Coming to Town
- We Wish You A Merry Christmas
- Jingle Bells
- Away in a Manger
- Sleigh Ride
- Carol of the Bells
- Little Drummer Boy
- O Come, All Ye Faithful
- O Holy Night
- Let It Snow
- Silver Bells
- Deck the Halls
- Ave Maria
- Joy to the World
- White Christmas
- The First Noel
- What Child is This
- Here Comes Santa Claus
- All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth
- I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
- Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer
- Do You Hear What I Hear?
- God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
- Winter Wonderland
- Baby, It’s Cold Outside
- Up On the Housetop
- O, Little Town of Bethlehem
- Go Tell It On the Mountain
Oh and I’ve created three downloadable versions for you below to play the games:
- One for music lovers, meaning it’s the harder version without any hints/artists
- One that should be used for How Do You Doo that has hints (to help people who may not know which song Sleigh Ride for instance is)
- One that’s just in a list (not for cutting out) for Name That Tune.
<< Download the Music Lover “hard” version for How Do You Doo >>
<< Download the easy How Do You Doo version >>
<< Download the Name that Tune version>>
Don’t forget to pin these Christmas songs for later!
Cindy says
Love love love your ideas and games!!
Joy says
This is the best game! Please don’t ever delete your link to it. The links to the songs are the PERFECT sampling of the songs!! FYI- frosty and rudolf are links to books, not the song and joy to the world is the oldies version, not the Christmas carol. But, I love, love, love your list and post. Great job And thank you sooo much! Merry Christmas!
BritniV says
Thanks so much Joy, just fixed those links!
Lisa Brennan says
Thanks for creative party games.
Amanda says
Hi- I am clicking the links (I tried safari and chrome) and the first two links for the game are not working.
BritniV says
If you go to the bottom of the page it says download and gives you a couple of options (3). Click on those links depending on the game you want. If it still doesn’t work. Email me and let me know what you need and I will get you a copy. Sorry.
Naomi says
I cannot figure out how to email you (find your email address) to get the links for the music downloads I need. Unfortunately the links on your site are not working. ☹️
BritniV says
The links are fixed now (sorry about that – a plugin update broke them and I had to find the original files), and I’ve emailed you a copy of the PDF lists!
Danielle Kessler says
Hello! I am trying to click the link to download the song list for the How do you doo game and it is not working. Says 404 error. Can you please email to me?
BritniV says
Emailed!
Kristine says
Thank you so much for all the ideas! Like Amanda, I’m having trouble with the downloads for both versions of “How Do You Doo?” I get a “404” page not found error for both of them.
BritniV says
Emailed you a copy!
Kristine Krohn says
Thank you!
BritniV says
Your welcome!
Sue says
Would any ideas for large groups of adults to play. I belong to an emergency services group this is for the Xmas party
BritniV says
Here is a list of our most recent Christmas party games –> https://www.playpartyplan.com/christmas-games/
Julie says
Is there an actual link to download the music snippets of these songs? All I get on the 3 links is a written copy of the songs. Thanks,
Julie
BritniV says
No, unfortunately that would be a copyright violation for me to provide the songs themselves. I just have the lists and you can decide which ones you want to use them download them on your own.