Christmas arrives in UK charts earlier than ever with entries for Wham! and Mariah Carey

Christmas classics enter at No 37 and No 40 respectively, ahead of increasing ubiquity over the festive season

People who argue that Christmas seems to come earlier every year now have an important piece of evidence: the earliest ever appearance of Christmas songs in the UK Top 40.

We're not halfway through November, but already the widely agreed-upon pair of greatest modern Christmas classics - Wham!'s Last Christmas and Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You - have entered the chart at No 37 and No 40 respectively. Last year, it took until the third week of November for a Christmas song to appear, namely All I Want for Christmas Is You. Each song will now almost certainly remain in the chart for the rest of the year, and possibly early 2024.