30 Best Christmas Songs by ‘American Idol’ Finalists: Critic’s Picks

People sang around Christmastime as early as the year 129 A.D. and created Latin hymns for the season by the 4th century, but it wasn’t until the 12th century that folks started singing what we would consider to be Christmas carols. There was an explosion of new Christmas songs in the 19th century, and by the 20th century, more secular holiday tunes had become an essential part of the season, from Irving Berlin’s smash hit “White Christmas” (immortalized by Bing Crosby) to “Silver Bells” to “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

The bar has been set high in the last 70 years, from Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” both of which topped the Billboard Hot 100 decades after their initial release and continue to compete for the upper echelon of the Hot 100 each December.

Of course, artists are still making new Christmas music, but a lot of the songs they record in the 21st century go way back – “Silent Night” was written in 1818, for example. Still, more than 200 years later, songwriters are penning new Christmas songs. Where will the next future classics come from? Here’s one place to look, as our Billboard critic ranks the 30 best original Christmas songs by American Idol finalists from the series’ multiple seasons on Fox and ABC-TV.

To see what’s hot during the cold season, take a look the No. 1 song on our annual Holiday 100 chart. For a list of our staff picks of the 100 best Christmas songs of all time, grab a cup of eggnog and peruse this one. And to see our Billboard chart-based list of the greatest holiday hits of all time, jingle your way right over here.

Fred Bronson has been covering American Idol for Billboard since 2003. He has curated a Spotify playlist of Idols singing Christmas songs, both originals and covers.