As Christmas arrives early on the singles chart, execs have spoken about how festive songs have become crucial to the annual streaming performance of music companies.

Mariah Carey’s 1994 hit All I Want For Christmas Is You could finally reach No.1 this year. Last week it made No.2 (36,251 sales – OCC). The single’s career sales are 2,816,285.

According to Official Charts Company data, streams for Christmas music were already up 44.5% year-on-year in chart week 48 (to November ...