The Pogues' 'Fairytale of New York' voted favourite Christmas song in nationwide poll

The single beat Mariah Carey's 'All I Want For Christmas' and Slade's 'Merry Xmas Everybody'

It is hardly a feel-good hit, but The Pogues' "Fairytale of New York" has been voted the best Christmas song of all time.

The 1987 single, featuring the vocals of Kirsty MacColl, has topped a poll of the nation’s favourite Christmas songs, beating Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” and Wham!’s “Last Christmas”.

Twenty three per cent of respondents chose the Eighties track as their favourite festive song, in comparison to one in ten who chose Slade’s “Merry Xmas Everybody” and just three per cent who preferred Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby” (3 per cent).

The poll, commissioned by Blinkbox Music, also revealed that over a third of the 2,000 adults surveyed thought the Eighties produced the best Christmas songs. The Seventies received a quarter of the votes, followed by the Nineties with 10 per cent.

Just two per cent of respondents opted for the Noughties as the best decade for Christmas tunes, with less than one per cent choosing the 2010s, which has produced the likes of Mariah Carey’s “Oh Santa” and Justin Bieber’s “Mistletoe”.

The poll is the latest in a number of surveys that has named “The Fairytale of New York” the nation’s favourite Christmas song.

The song charted at number two in the UK singles chart when it was first released in 1987, and has gone on to chart again in the top 20 every year since 2005.

Speaking about the track’s popularity, Sam Sutton, senior lecturer in music technology at London College of Music said: “It’s the distinctly edgier offering from The Pogues and Kirsty McColl that most appeals to our sensibilities.

“Perhaps the rousing squabble between the two appeals to Brits because it’s somehow more real and closer to our actual experience of Christmas – a heady and sometimes tense mix of friends, family and booze.”

Read more: The 50 best Christmas songs