Life & Style

Fairytale of New York crowned the greatest Christmas song of all time

FAIRYTALE of New York has been chosen as the best Christmas tune of all time by music lovers.

The Pogues hit featuring Kirsty MacColl pipped Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You and Wham’s Last Christmas to the festive top spot in a poll of Magic Radio listeners.

The iconic hit also managed to top Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas, which took the fourth spot.

It rounds off a memorable week for frontman Shane MacGowan, who tied the knot with his partner of 32 years in Denmark on Monday.

The 60-year-old wed journalist Victoria Mary Clarke, 52, at a small ceremony in Copenhagen with Hollywood star Johnny Depp playing guitar.

Research commissioned to coincide with the Magic Radio '12 songs of Christmas' list also found that for almost half of the population, hearing Christmas music is most likely to put them in a festive mood.

A quarter of adults felt seeing Christmas decorations go up helped aid festive cheer most, while Christmas shopping came in at third place with 18%.

"When it comes to putting people in the Christmas spirit, music is king," said a Magic Radio spokesman.

"And it’s no wonder that more people are turning to music to bring them festive cheer – it’s the ultimate escapism in another year of uncertain times and bad news.

"With Christmas bringing loved ones together, there’s no better time to put music on and relax into that Christmassy feeling.”

The festive period was found by the poll to be the most anticipated time of the year, with 69% of adults most looking forward to December 25 over New Year and summer bank holidays.

Spending time with loved ones was also deemed the most important part of Christmas for 60% of people, whilst the Christmas Party came bottom – just 2% of us look forward to the annual ‘do.

Magic Radio announced plans earlier this week to switch their playlist to 100% Christmas with non-stop festive tunes all the way up to Boxing Day on December 26.

The '12 Songs of Christmas' as selected by Magic Radio listeners are: