How Christmas music bingo works
Each player gets a card of song titles instead of numbers. The host plays a short clip of one song after another; when players recognize a song on their card, they mark it. The first to complete a row, column or diagonal shouts bingo, and the host checks the card against the songs played so far. There’s nothing to memorize and no wrong answers to read out, which is why it works at office parties, family gatherings and pub quizzes alike.
These cards hold 24 of the 47 songs below, plus a free center, so every card has a different mix. They print one per page so that even the longest titles come out at about 13 points; at two per page they shrink to 7 to 9 points, which is hard to read in a dim room. The generator makes up to 200 different cards.
Running the game
- Print the cards and the caller sheet. The caller sheet lists all 47 songs in a random order with a tick box for each, and it’s shuffled again every time you download it, so players can’t work out the order from their cards.
- Build the playlist in that order in the streaming app you normally use, or skip the playlist: open Call the game, press Call next and play whichever song it shows. The board on screen lights up every song played so far, which settles any argument about what has come up.
- Play 30 to 45 seconds of each song. In our simulations with 30 cards, the first line came after about 14 songs (10 to 17 in most games) and a full card after about 43. At 40 seconds a clip that’s about 9 minutes to the first winner and half an hour for a full card.
- Check winners by card number. Type the number printed at the bottom of the card into Check a winning card: it rebuilds that card and marks the songs already played.
The songs, and which recording to play
Every song on these cards was on Billboard’s Holiday 100 for the week of January 3, 2026 (US), on the Official Charts Company’s list of the UK’s 40 most-streamed Christmas songs (December 2024), or on both. On the UK list, Step into Christmas appears as Elton John’s Christmas EP, the entry under which the Official Charts Company counts the song. The recording named is the one on those charts, so it’s the version most people will recognize.
| Song | Recording | Charts |
|---|---|---|
| All I Want for Christmas Is You | Mariah Carey | Both |
| Last Christmas | Wham! | Both |
| Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree | Brenda Lee | Both |
| Jingle Bell Rock | Bobby Helms | Both |
| Santa Tell Me | Ariana Grande | Both |
| The Christmas Song | Nat King Cole | Both |
| Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! | Dean Martin | Both |
| Underneath the Tree | Kelly Clarkson | Both |
| It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year | Andy Williams | Both |
| Sleigh Ride | The Ronettes | Both |
| Feliz Navidad | José Feliciano | Both |
| A Holly Jolly Christmas | Burl Ives or Michael Bublé | Both |
| It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas | Michael Bublé | Both |
| Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) | Darlene Love | Both |
| White Christmas | Bing Crosby | Both |
| Santa Baby | Eartha Kitt (US) or Kylie Minogue (UK) | Both |
| Blue Christmas | Elvis Presley | Both |
| Wonderful Christmastime | Paul McCartney | Both |
| Mistletoe | Justin Bieber | Both |
| Snowman | Sia | Both |
| Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town | The Jackson 5 | Both |
| Happy Xmas (War Is Over) | John & Yoko and the Plastic Ono Band | Both |
| Do They Know It’s Christmas? | Band Aid | Both |
| Run Rudolph Run | Chuck Berry | US |
| Here Comes Santa Claus | Gene Autry | US |
| Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer | Gene Autry | US |
| Little Saint Nick | The Beach Boys | US |
| You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch | Thurl Ravenscroft | US |
| This Christmas | Donny Hathaway | US |
| Winter Wonderland | Darlene Love or Bing Crosby | US |
| I’ll Be Home for Christmas | Bing Crosby | US |
| Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas | Frank Sinatra or Judy Garland | US |
| Step into Christmas | Elton John | Both |
| Christmas Tree Farm | Taylor Swift | US |
| Deck the Halls | Nat King Cole | US |
| Fairytale of New York | The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl | UK |
| Merry Christmas Everyone | Shakin’ Stevens | UK |
| Merry Xmas Everybody | Slade | UK |
| I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday | Wizzard | UK |
| Driving Home for Christmas | Chris Rea | UK |
| One More Sleep | Leona Lewis | UK |
| Christmas Lights | Coldplay | UK |
| Stop the Cavalry | Jona Lewie | UK |
| Stay Another Day | East 17 | UK |
| Mary’s Boy Child | Boney M. | UK |
| Lonely This Christmas | Mud | UK |
| 2000 Miles | Pretenders | UK |
Trim the list for your crowd. The songs marked US are American staples that British guests may not know, and the other way round. Deleting the 11 US-only songs before you print leaves 36, and deleting the 12 UK-only songs leaves 35, still plenty for 5×5 cards; with 30 cards the first line then comes after about 11 songs and a full card after about 32 or 33.
Playing music in public
A party at home needs no permission. A public performance does: in the UK, PPL PRS explains that music played outside a domestic setting counts as a public performance, which needs the copyright holders’ permission, usually through TheMusicLicence. In the US, copyright law counts a performance as public when it’s somewhere open to the public or where a substantial number of people beyond family and friends gather (17 U.S.C. § 101), and BMI points out that a personal streaming subscription doesn’t cover playing songs in a public setting. Pubs and venues that run music bingo usually hold these licenses already; for an office party, ask whoever books the room.
Running a gift exchange at the same party? The Secret Santa generator draws the names. Test the room’s speakers before guests arrive, or switch to classic 75-ball numbers for a round without music.
When you reload, this page goes back to the set-up described here, with the same card set code, so printing again gives the same cards. The number of cards, the paper size and, where this page doesn’t set them, cards per page and color are remembered from the generator. To keep an edited list, use Share result, or start from the bingo card generator, which remembers everything.