Christmas number ones from the past 50 years: From The Beatles to The X Factor machine
This year's winner Sam Bailey has topped the festive singles chart for 2013
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Your support makes all the difference.It’s a very merry Christmas for Simon Cowell as The X Factor wins the battle of the Christmas charts – for the sixth time since the franchise appeared on our television screens a decade ago.
This year's winner, Sam Bailey, clinched the number one spot with her debut single "Skyscraper". But the seasonal charts haven’t always been dominated by the singing competition.
Despite this year's unsuccessful attempt to secure AC/DC’s "Highway to Hell" the top spot, in 2009, Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name" bucked the X Factor trend by scuppering Joe McElderry’s attempts to claim the festive number one.
Both The Beatles and the Spice Girls have had a trio of Christmas top hits over the past 15 years and there have been some more unusual victors in the form of Bob the Builder and Mr Blobby. Not forgetting the choirs - Military Wives in 2011 and St Winifred's School Choir back in 1980 - the race to the top has been an interesting one to say the least.
Take a look back at the festive victors of the past 15 years:
And here's 35 more Christmas chart-toppers
1998: Spice Girls – “Goodbye”
1997: Spice Girls – “Too Much”
1996: Spice Girls – “2 Become 1”
1995: Michael Jackson – “Earth Song”
1994: East 17 – “Stay Another Day”
1993: Mr Blobby – “Mr Blobby”
1992: Whitney Houston – “I Will Always Love You”
1991: Queen - "Bohemian Rhapsody"/ "These Are the Days of Our Lives"
1990: Cliff Richard – “Saviour’s Day”
1989: Band Aid II - “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
1988: Cliff Richard – “Mistletoe and Wine”
1987: Pet Shop Boys – “Always on My Mind”
1986: Jackie Wilson – "Reet Petite"
1985: Shakin’ Stevens – "Merry Christmas Everyone"
1984: Band Aid - “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
1983: The Flying Pickets - “Only You”
1982: Renee and Renato -“Save Your Love”
1981: The Human League - “Don’t You Want Me”
1980: St Winifred's School Choir – “There’s No One Quite Like Grandma!
1979: Pink Floyd – "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)"
1978: Boney M. - "Mary's Boy Child - oh my Lord"
1977: Wings - "Mull of Kintyre" / "Girls' School"
1976: Johnny Mathis - "When A Child Is Born(Soleado)"
1975: Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody
1974: Mud – “Lonely This Christmas”
1973: Slade – “Merry Xmas Everybody”
1972: Jimmy Osmond – "Long Haired Lover from Liverpool"
1971: Benny Hill - "Ernuie (The Fastest Milkman in the West"
1970: Dave Edmunds – “I Hear You Knocking”
1969: Rolf Harris – “Two Little Boys”
1968: The Scaffold – "Lily the Pink"
1967: The Beatles: “Hello, Goodbye”
1966: Tom Jones – "Green, Green grass of Home"
1965: The Beatles - "Day Tripper"/ "We Can Work It Out"
1964: The Beatles – “I Feel Fine”
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