Christmas Chart Race 2024: Who is the bookmakers' favourite in November to earn the vaunted top spot?

• It’s still early days, but the race for the Christmas number one feels like it is about to begin.
• After the release of the highly-anticipated John Lewis Christmas advert, has that led to an early surge in betting odds?
• Here’s a look at the current favourite to top the UK charts this Christmas - despite being November.

It’s one of the most hotly contested competitions that takes place each Christmas season; and it’s not the annual family game of Monopoly and the inevitable arguments it brings.

Each year, the race to the top of the UK Top 40 chart is a hard fought contest with many contenders stepping up to earn their chance to top the coveted position, be it those who had success on shows such as Pop Idol or The X-Factor through to Rage Against The Machine rattling the Christmas cages back in 2009.

Of course, there was a period when LadBaby would release a cover with some variant of a sausage roll involved, after his reign over the Christmas chart from 2018 to 2022 but having opted to not contest the 2023 or 2024 race, that left the door wide open for someone else to step in.

With Wham! earning last year’s top spot, and the release of the 2024 John Lewis Christmas advert, all eyes now look towards who could top this year’s top 40 and win the race - is it going to be another cover? Is one of 2024’s pop superstars set to take the top spot? 

Or will ‘Last Christmas’ take the gong and make it back-to-back Christmas number ones? I know - it’s only November, but it’s time to start making those early predictions with the help of OLBG once again. 

As seasoned gamblers will tell you though, everything can change in an instant - so with regards to November 2024, what is the current favourite to top the yuletide chart?

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Who is the bookies favourite for the Christmas number 1 in November 2024?

According to OLBG, Sabrina Carpenter is still the favourite to earn the Christmas number one single in 2024, with her betting odds remaining even at 1/1. However, ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham! has now taken the second favourite spot with odds currently at 3/1.

The company still think that either a song by One Direction or the late Liam Payne could have a chance at earning the top spot, with odds currently at 4/1, with Richard Ashcroft’s ‘Sonnet,’ now revealed to be the song used for the John Lewis 2024 Christmas advert in fourth with odds of 8/1.

But given how catchy that song is, expect the odds for that song to potentially become more favourable, owing to the immediate success the advert has had with audiences.

Coming in fifth position is the YouTube group Sidemen, who back in the 2022 Christmas number one race came close to topping the chart with their song ‘Christmas Drillings,’ only to be bested by both Wham! and LadBaby as it came in third in that year’s chart. 

Do you think that ‘Sonnet’ might become more of a favourite since the release of the John Lewis Christmas advert, or are you hoping Sidemen get their yuletide flowers this year? Let us know your predictions ahead of December’s final odds by leaving a comment down below.