Ed and Elton reveal their competitors for the Christmas rankings.

Ed Sheeran and Sir Elton John released what they hope will be the UK's number one song for Christmas this year. Titled Merry Christmas, it is a bittersweet song that celebrates the season and remembers "those who left in a painful year."

With sleigh bells, din-dongs, and a heavenly chorus, it's one of three songs the stars wrote after Sir Elton introduced the idea last Christmas. But both face stiff competition from Adele and LadBaby. Sheeran already has a Christmas number one with Beyonce duo Perfect to his name. Sir Elton's delightful Step Into Christmas is also a Christmas product that has returned to the UK top 40 every year since 2017.

The continued success of the singles led the star to offer a Christmas collaboration with Sheeran. "It was so lively that Step Into Christmas got higher and higher every year," Sheeran told American chat show host Jimmy Fallon. He said, "I want to sing the melody again. Do you want to do it with me?"

However, at first, Sheeran didn't mind the idea. "I've always been against it," he said. "It's not that I don't like Christmas. I love Christmas. But when it comes to melodies, you have to throw them in the kitchen sink."

In the end, the duo was more than immersed in the song. They threw a washing machine, a television, a sled full of Christmas bells, a pair of frightened reindeer, five beautiful rings, four liters of liquor oil, three packs of AA batteries, two glittering pianos, and a partridge on a pear tree.

The song contains every Christmas cliché imaginable, from gathering around a tree to kissing under the mistletoe. Yet it just works - it sounds instantly familiar and at the same time refreshingly new. Warning: Third-party content may contain advertisements. He's been asking for 27 years, but Mariah Carey hasn't put you in her socks (oh, shut up).

But what it does have is a chart that matches Coca-Cola's "Holidays to come." Of course, Christmas doesn't start until their thin almonds hit the radio. It was firmly in the Christmas top 10 and reached number one for the first time last year, only to be removed from LadBaby in the Christmas countdown. There's too much competition to be in the top this year, but it's almost guaranteed to be in the top 5