There are so many great (and not so great) Christmas songs, and even more versions of these. Would it be a good and lucrative idea to produce your own?

Maybe the most famous Christmas song ever is Fairytale of New York.

There are certainly some things you should consider, if you plan to do your own Christmas song. And not the least important question is, if it is worth it after all.

Do you remember the story About A Boy, written by Nick Hornby, where the main character (played by Hugh Grant in the movie adaption) lives comfortably of the royalties of a Christmas song his dad wrote? Who wouldn’t like that!

Cosmopolitan has recently published a list with some estimated yearly earnings:

$125,000 : Stay Another Day by Tony Mortimer, East 17
$130,000: Mistletoe And Wine by Cliff Richard
$135,000: 2000 Miles by The Pretenders
$160,000: Stop The Cavalry by Jona Lewie
$350,000: Wonderful Christmastime by Paul McCartney
$400,000: Last Christmas by Wham!
$440,000: White Christmas by Bing Crosby
$500,000: All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey
$535,000: Fairy Tale of New York by The Pogues
$670,000: Merry Christmas Everybody by Slade

Not bad, eh? – But, as always, the winner takes it all, and for all others, there are only breadcrumbs left, I guess. Unfortunately, I haven’t found numbers about these. But it is certainly important to know, that the bigger part of the royalties goes to the writer, and not the performer. Therefore, it would make sense to write your own song, or produce a cover of a song in the public domain, when it comes about making revenues.

That it might be worthy to do a Christmas song as an independent artist, proves the story of New York-based singer-songwriter Elizabeth Chan, who only writes Christmas songs.