Spotify’s holiday season has officially arrived, and October 1 is already looking a lot like December. Just one day into the month, festive music is generating an average of 36.2 million streams per day on the platform, with Bleachers’ “Merry Christmas, Please Don’t Call” currently leading Spotify’s holiday songs for the 2026 season.
The early numbers suggest listeners are getting into the Christmas spirit well before the traditional holiday rush. Spotify users created more than 100,000 holiday playlists during September alone, while the platform’s Christmas Hits editorial playlist climbed to No. 64 among Spotify’s most-streamed editorial playlists as of September 25.
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Bleachers’ “Merry Christmas, Please Don’t Call” currently sits at No. 1 among the most-streamed holiday tracks so far this season, followed by Alex Crichton’s “Merry Christmas, i miss you” and Sia’s “Snowman.” Wham!’s “Last Christmas” ranks fourth, while Mariah Carey’s perennial “All I Want For Christmas Is You” rounds out the top five.
The early momentum comes as Spotify launches Holidays on Spotify on October 1, kicking off a season-long celebration centered on festive listening, new releases and surprise data drops. The campaign will continue throughout the holiday period before Spotify reveals the songs, artists and albums that defined Christmas listening in 2026.
For some markets, however, October is hardly considered early. Spotify data shows Barbadian listeners begin increasing their holiday listening as early as October 1, almost a month ahead of the global average of October 30. Liechtenstein, Denmark and Iceland are also among the countries where festive listening starts earlier than in much of the world.
The Philippines is operating on an entirely different holiday timetable. During September, holiday music represented 1.3% of the country’s total Spotify streams, more than twice the share recorded in the next-highest country, Colombia. Filipino listeners have also generated the most holiday-related searches on Spotify so far this season, followed by users in the United States, United Kingdom, Indonesia and Germany.
Classic Christmas songs remain central to that annual cycle, even as newer releases compete for attention. Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” remains Spotify’s most-streamed holiday song overall, while Michael Bublé continues to hold the distinction of the platform’s most popular holiday artist.
Last December also demonstrated just how durable the holiday catalog remains. All five of the top holiday tracks in the U.S. were more than 30 years old, including Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” and Dean Martin’s “Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
Spotify is also preparing additional holiday releases through initiatives such as Spotify Singles: Holiday Collection, giving artists an opportunity to reinterpret familiar seasonal songs alongside the platform’s established classics.
Photo: Bleachers in the “Merry Christmas, Please Don’t Call” music video
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