CHRISTMAS parties and nights out would not be the same without a drunken singalong to some classic festive tunes.

Forget the latest X Factor winner’s bid to be Christmas number one. For me, it’s all about the Top Of The Pops 2 Christmas Special every year. Yes that’s right, I look forward to the medley of the most cheery, chintzy and cheesy classics from across the decades.

And love them or hate them, you cannot escape them at this time of year.

My absolute favourite is Last Christmas by Wham! A great love song from the golden age of Christmas hits — the eighties — with a pearler of a music video.

But what does your favourite Christmas song say about you?

According to relationship expert Flic Everett, your top festive song could reveal more about your soft side than you think.

She says: “We all have the songs we love and look forward to hearing every year. But the song that means the most to you can say more about your personality than you’d think.”

Well, we thought we would see how this theory washes with the people of Bolton and conducted a poll to find out the town’s favourite hits at this time of year.

So we tested the following hits on our online readers:

● Fairytale of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty McColl

● White Christmas by Bing Crosby

● All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey

● I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday by Wizzard

● Driving Home For Christmas by Chris Rea

● Merry Xmas Everybody by Slade

● Last Christmas by Wham!

● Do They Know It's Christmas? by Band Aid

● Let It Snow by Dean Martin

● Stop The Cavalry by Jona Lewie

But the overwhelming winner in Bolton, with a whopping 41 per cent, was Fairytale Of New York.

And Ms Everett says: “If you love this song you have a curious, open-minded nature. You like to challenge expectations and, in the same way that this is a beautiful, festive song about a low-life break-up, you hate to be judged on first appearances.”

Second in Bolton was Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas with 12 per cent. If this disco stomper is your favourite, it apparently means you’re the life and soul of the party who takes people at face value.

Battling it out for third place, Mariah Carey and Chris Rea bagged 11 per cent of the vote. If you’re a Mariah fan “you’re easygoing, kind and a bit scatterbrained”, according to Ms Everett.

And if you love Driving Home For Christmas “you’ve had some sadness in your life, and value what you have all the more highly as a result”.

Whether you believe the expert, Christmas songs definitely strike an emotional chord with a lot of people.

Andy Wilkinson, Bolton FM programme manager, said: “The original Christmas songs seem to be the favourites with a lot of our listeners.

In the 1980s, the songs were always number one, but now it’s The X Factor winners who have taken over from that.

“The classics just seem to really get people in the Christmas spirit.

Our most popular are songs Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid and Greg Lakes’ I Believe in Father Christmas. Peter Kay’s Once Upon A Christmas is also very popular with our listeners.”

Alistair Hall, from X-Records in Bolton, said: “We tend to sell more Christmas compilations rather than singles, but Band Aid, Wizzard and Slade have always been popular.

“People just like being reminded of the Christmas spirit. The songs seem to trigger a certain kind of emotion for people. My favourites are the ones by Paul McCartney and Christ Deber.”

So there you have it. Whether you love or hate this time of year, there’s a Christmas song for every emotion, and I say embrace the cheese! After all, in the great words of Noddy Holder, “It’sssss Chrisssstmasssssssss!”