For Songwriters
How to Write Holiday Songs That Keep Earning Every Season
By the Starchild Music team · October 17, 2026 · 5 min read
The short answer
Holiday songs earn again every year because listeners return to them on a predictable calendar. Luminate data shows holiday music reaching about 13 percent of U.S. on-demand audio streaming at its peak week, so write songs about the season rather than the year, list them early, and keep your registrations ready.
Most songs earn the most in their first weeks. Holiday songs behave differently. They come back every year, because the audience comes back on a schedule.
If you write for artists, this is one of the few places where you can plan a catalog around the calendar. It is also one that needs to start in autumn, not December.
What the streaming data says
Luminate, the data company behind Billboard's charts, tracks holiday music as its own share of U.S. on-demand audio streaming. In its analysis of the season, holiday music reached 14.3% of that market in week 51 of 2020, and 13% in week 52 of 2023.
Luminate also notes a gradual decline in peak share since 2020, but points to the calendar as a factor. In 2024, Thanksgiving fell on November 28, the latest it can, which left a shorter runway before Christmas. Day-by-day patterns, it says, stayed competitive.
The takeaway is simple. About one in eight streams at the peak is a holiday song, and that peak returns every year.
That is why seasonal catalogs reward patience. A single winter rarely tells you what a song can do, but several winters of listening show whether it becomes a favorite.
Write about the season, not the year
A line that mentions a specific year ties your song to one winter. A line about snow, a kitchen, a long drive home or an empty chair works every year.
Think in moods as well as Christmas. Songs for winter, New Year's, gratitude, family and quiet nights give an artist more ways to use them, and they can fit outside the exact week of December 25.
Small details make a song feel real. A scarf by the door, the first frost on a car window or a song playing in a hallway are specific enough to picture and common enough to share.
Keep the language plain. A listener should understand the first verse on the first hearing, since holiday songs are often heard in busy rooms, in cars or while cooking.
Make it easy to cover and easy to perform
Artists choosing a seasonal single want something simple to record on a short schedule. A strong chorus, a comfortable range and a clear structure help.
Offering a song in more than one production style helps too. On Starchild, listeners can hear each adaptive song in several finished production styles and voices, with pitch, key and tempo controls, before they license it. A warm acoustic take and a bigger band take can both reach different artists.
Think about live use as well. Licenses on Starchild cover performing the song live, so a seasonal song that works for a solo singer at a holiday market or a church concert has more places to go.
Timing: list in autumn
Artists plan holiday releases early. Our guide to planning a Christmas single in October lays out why: distribution, artwork and playlist pitching all take time.
If you want your song picked up this season, list it now. If you miss this year, list it in spring or summer so it is in the catalog when artists start planning next year's release.
Register the song before it is recorded
Holiday income is lumpy. A song may earn almost nothing from January to October and then most of its year in six weeks. If registration is incomplete when that moment arrives, the money can sit unmatched.
Register with your PRO and The MLC in advance. Our walkthrough of registering with The MLC takes about ten minutes.
Exclusive terms for a release window
An artist who wants a seasonal single to themselves can take a time-limited exclusive: $60 for 3 months, $100 for 6 months, or $150 for 12 months. The song leaves the marketplace for the term, and earlier non-exclusive licensees keep their rights.
For a seasonal song, a three-month exclusive covering the holiday window can be a good fit, and the song returns to the catalog afterward. See how exclusive licenses work.
Be careful with a few things
Holiday songs lean on shared images, which is part of their charm. Even so, avoid borrowing a title, a hook or a lyric line from a well-known song. A fresh angle on a familiar feeling is both safer and easier for an artist to claim as their own.
Keep the lyric clear of references that would date it, such as a trending phrase, and make sure the song works without a full arrangement. An artist should be able to hear a piano or guitar and picture their own version.
If a co-writer helped, settle splits before you list. A seasonal song that sells in November should not wait on a December email thread.
A small seasonal catalog plan
You do not need a hundred holiday songs. A few well-made ones, written in different moods, can cover most of what artists look for.
- One warm, singable song about home or family.
- One quiet, reflective song for winter or the new year.
- One upbeat song for gatherings, with a strong chorus.
- One song that is about the season but not tied to a single holiday.
What stays the same every year
The listener return is the point. Luminate's data shows holiday music building through the season and cresting in the last weeks of December, and its analysis suggests the calendar, not changing taste, explains much of the year-to-year variation.
That is the opportunity for a songwriter: a licensed seasonal song can be picked up by a new artist each year, and each release gives the composition a fresh chance to earn once registrations are in place.