The most loved and hated Christmas songs have been found according to research undertaken by the popular gambling website, Casino Kings.

The research saw entertainment experts analyse social media content regarding 60 popular festive tunes to find the most well-loved and reviled of these songs.

Casino Kings found that our taste in Christmas music is hugely divisive with popular songs receiving a large amount of hatred.

Analysis found that Wham!'s 1984 hit Christmas classic, Last Christmas, was the public's favourite holiday song with a whopping 10.9 million likes on social media.

The song was famously written in George Michael's childhood bedroom according to their bandmate Andre Ridgeley.

While Last Christmas was the most liked song on social media, it strongly divides Christmas lovers with it also receiving the most negative reactions among the songs analysed.

Up to 436,000 people expressed their displeasure toward the tune with many of these showing a sad or angry emote in response to it.

Great Yarmouth Mercury: Canva - Fairytale of New York was the second most popular songCanva - Fairytale of New York was the second most popular song (Image: Canva)

Fairytale of New York by the Irish band, The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, was the second most popular song with 3 million likes.

The song takes a rather different approach to other popular Christmas hits with it being about broken dreams and spending the night in the 'drunk tank' on Christmas Eve.

Of course, any list of the public's favourite Christmas tunes would not be complete without the inclusion of Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You, which was the third most popular song.

With over a billion streams on Spotify, there is no denying that All I Want For Christmas Is You is one of the top Christmas songs of all time.

However, it received 195,000 negative responses online, making it rather contentious to some listeners.

Top 10 favourite Christmas songs 

Here are the most liked Christmas songs (by social media likes):

  1. Last Christmas by Wham (10.9m)
  2. Fairytale of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl (3m)
  3. All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey (1.5m)
  4. Driving home for Christmas by Chris Rea (1.3m)
  5. Merry Christmas by Ed Sheeran and Elton John (699k)
  6. Blue Christmas by Elvis (605k)
  7. Christmas in Hollis by Run-DMC (581k)
  8. Mistletoe by Justin Bieber (414k)
  9. Father Christmas by The Kinks (279k)
  10. Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town by Bruce Springsteen (250k)

A spokesperson from Casino Kings commented on the findings, saying: "Christmas Songs are something that can divide us all, some people love them while others find them unbearable.

"Thankfully with social media we can see how people react to these songs and see which songs people love and loathe at Christmas time. With this knowledge, we can use it to make Office Christmas parties a little more bearable."