Six Best-Selling Christmas Albums: Read the U.S. Certifications

A useful comparison of best-selling Christmas albums starts with the unit being counted. In the six selected records below, Elvis’ Christmas Album on RCA Camden & Pickwick and Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas each hold an RIAA Diamond album award: 10 million certified U.S. units. These are not worldwide sales totals, and certified units are not necessarily individual album purchases.

The snapshot was checked on October 22, 2026. It compares six named albums using the Recording Industry Association of America’s public Gold & Platinum database. This is not an exhaustive holiday-album ranking. The point is to read specific awards correctly, including ties, older certifications, and releases with confusingly similar names.

This list ranks U.S. certifications, not global sales

RIAA’s general Album Award recognizes Gold at 500,000 units, Platinum at one million, and Diamond at ten million. Multi-Platinum levels advance in million-unit steps. An 8× Platinum award therefore represents an eight-million-unit threshold. These are award milestones; they are not a real-time counter that changes whenever someone buys a record or plays a track.

The RIAA certification criteria restrict eligible activity to the United States and include sales to U.S. military post exchanges. Exports are excluded. A huge British chart total or a worldwide label announcement answers a different question, even when it concerns exactly the same artist and album.

The award date matters, too. Certifications require an application and supporting figures for an audit; they are not automatic. A record last certified in 1999 may have accumulated more activity since then. Its database award still supports the certified threshold shown, not a claim that sales stopped that year. Likewise, a recent award does not reveal how many units came from each format unless a source supplies that breakdown.

How each album earns its place

The table orders these selected records by certified threshold, highest first. Equal thresholds remain ties; the order within a tie does not imply an advantage. Every row is an ALBUM entry in the general U.S. program. The label is reproduced because it helps distinguish records, especially for Elvis. The carrier shown in an album cover photograph cannot establish which catalog entry earned an award.

Elvis’ Christmas Album — Elvis Presley

The Diamond entry is specifically ELVIS’ CHRISTMAS ALBUM, listed under RCA CAMDEN & PICKWICK and certified September 9, 2011. That label identification is part of the comparison, rather than a disposable detail. It tells you which public record supports the ten-million figure.

The Elvis Christmas search also returns other album titles and singles. A search result containing “Christmas” is therefore not enough to identify the right award. Match the full title, label, and ALBUM category before repeating its total.

Merry Christmas — Mariah Carey

Carey’s Merry Christmas is now a Diamond album in the RIAA database, with LEGACY listed as the label and December 15, 2025, as its certification date. It reaches the same ten-million threshold as the Elvis entry above. A comparison using an older, lower award would miss that update.

Keep the title intact: Merry Christmas II You is another album returned by that search. And “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is a song, with a separate single award. Neither record can be substituted for this album or used as a numerical bonus on top of it.

Miracles: The Holiday Album — Kenny G

Kenny G’s record lists MIRACLES: THE HOLIDAY ALBUM on ARISTA at 8× Platinum, dated January 13, 1999. It is the next threshold in this selection after the two Diamond records. The source identifies an album award, rather than an artist’s career sales.

The older award date makes this a particularly useful example of what certification can establish. Eight million is the certified milestone in that record; it is not a measurement of purchases made in the current year, nor an exact lifetime retail total. Those claims would need different evidence.

These Are Special Times — Céline Dion

These Are Special Times appears in Dion’s RIAA result at 6× Platinum, certified November 3, 2022, under 550 MUSIC/EPIC. That supplies a six-million U.S. threshold and an explicit date for the comparison.

It shares its threshold with the Groban and Bublé records below. Calling one of those three “bigger” on the strength of these awards alone would add precision the source does not provide. A tie is the accurate result, even if other measures could put them in a different order.

Noël — Josh Groban

The database spells this title NOEL and lists WARNER BROS RECORDS as the label. Its 6× Platinum certification is dated August 14, 2017. We use the familiar accented title in the article while preserving the source’s searchable spelling here.

The date identifies the award event, not a new release date and not the end of the album’s commercial life. To reproduce the comparison, search artist and title together, select the album result, and read its award rather than borrowing a chart position or a worldwide promotional number.

Christmas — Michael Bublé

Bublé’s Christmas holds 6× Platinum on WARNER RECORDS, dated September 30, 2021. The public result spells the artist MICHAEL BUBLE. Artist identity is especially important with a generic title like Christmas, which cannot identify a recording by itself.

This is a U.S. certification, not a British chart-unit figure. Use it alongside the other five U.S. album records here; use a British chart source when asking a British chart question. Mixing the two would produce a larger-looking comparison without a consistent measurement.

Why Elvis reissues cannot be added casually

The same Elvis search lists ELVIS’ CHRISTMAS ALBUM (ORIGINAL) on RCA at 3× Platinum, dated July 15, 1999, separately from the RCA CAMDEN & PICKWICK Diamond entry. The database also includes other Christmas releases. Those are distinct displayed records; their presence does not authorize an editor to merge them into one album total.

We therefore keep the original entry outside the six-row comparison and do not add its three-million threshold to the Diamond figure. A combined number would need an explicit, documented rule establishing what is being combined and how overlapping recordings or configurations are handled. Keeping the records separate lets the reader reproduce the result without guessing.

Modern albums and streaming-equivalent units

RIAA’s program history dates the addition of song sales and on-demand streams to the Album Award to 2016. Under its album audit requirements, one complete physical or permanent digital album purchase counts as one unit; ten permanent track downloads from the album or 1,500 eligible on-demand audio/video streams also count as one unit.

For a simple example, 15,000 eligible streams translate to ten album units under that conversion, not 15,000 album sales. Eligibility still matters: the rules specify which tracks and streams qualify. The database’s headline award does not tell us the physical/download/streaming split for these six records. Avoid describing a modern certification as millions of purchased CDs or treating an older award as if it had already been recalculated under today’s method.

A source table for the reader

The comparison table gives the date and label for each award; the six linked artist searches above let you check the corresponding records. Read the criteria and audit PDF for what the numbers measure. When a result changes, update its award and date together rather than simply changing the year in a headline.

For individual recordings, our guide to best-selling Christmas songs handles the separate song question. For an album comparison, keep four fields together: recording identity, territory, measurement, and certification date. That small habit prevents a holiday listening list from turning into a misleading sales claim.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best-selling Christmas album in the United States?

The answer depends on the measurement. Among the six RIAA album records compared here, Elvis’ Christmas Album on RCA Camden & Pickwick and Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas both reach Diamond, representing 10 million certified U.S. units. That is a certification comparison checked October 22, 2026, rather than an exhaustive ranking of retail purchases or worldwide sales.

Do album certifications equal worldwide sales?

No. RIAA certifications cover eligible U.S. activity, with U.S. military post exchanges also included under the rules. Album units can combine complete-album purchases, eligible track downloads, and on-demand streams. Export sales are excluded. A single has a separate award record, so its certification cannot simply be added to the album’s total.