Olivia Rodrigo shares ‘take me home (4 christmas),’ her first original holiday single, and joins the 2026 UK Christmas No. 1 race
Olivia Rodrigo is officially a Christmas-music artist, and she is playing to win. On Thursday (Nov. 5) at 5 p.m. PT, the pop superstar released “take me home (4 christmas),” her first original holiday single, via Interscope, pairing it with a star-studded music video. The timing is no accident, because as a brand-new song, the track enters this year’s fiercely competitive race for the U.K. Christmas No. 1, a chart battle where fresh releases hold a built-in edge over catalogue perennials.
The song reunites Rodrigo with her core creative team. She co-wrote “take me home (4 christmas)” with longtime collaborator Dan Nigro and Amy Allen, with Nigro handling production. Per the description on her official store, the track explores the excitement and nervousness of spending the holidays with someone special, the kind of romantic, slightly anxious storytelling that has defined her catalog since “drivers license.” The accompanying video leans into celebrity charm, starring The Gilded Age and Sex and the City actress Cynthia Nixon alongside Saturday Night Live’s Ben Marshall, teased through a Christmas-party guessing game.
A Calculated Play for Christmas No. 1
The commercial strategy here is unmistakable. Under U.K. chart rules, a new original song carries an advantage over the streaming-fueled catalogue classics that dominate every December, and Rodrigo is already a four-time U.K. No. 1 artist. That makes “take me home (4 christmas)” a genuine contender to become her fifth U.K. chart-topper and her first festive No. 1 when the Official Christmas Number 1 is revealed on Dec. 25.
She is not leaving it to streaming alone. Rodrigo is driving physical sales during the gifting season with a red seven-inch vinyl and a cassette, both available through oliviarodrigo.com, Target and HMV in the U.K. The physical formats also sweeten the deal for collectors, pairing the single with a B-side bonus track titled “miss this christmas.” In a chart environment where every format sale counts, that bundle is a deliberate move to maximize first-week numbers.
Capping a Relentless Year
The holiday single caps one of the busiest years of Rodrigo’s career. She released her third studio album, You Seem Pretty Sad For a Girl So in Love, over the summer, launched The Unraveled Tour (which runs into May 2027), and headlined her own female-forward Daisy Chain Fields festival in August, donating proceeds to charity. Last month, she teamed with Chappell Roan for a remix of “expectations.” A Christmas song keeps her in the conversation through the one stretch of the year when pop stars traditionally go quiet.
It is also a long-game asset. Rodrigo has dabbled in the format before, having written a Christmas song called “The Bels” at age five that she shared with fans via her newsletter in 2022, but “take me home (4 christmas)” is her first fully produced holiday release. Holiday catalog is among the most durable revenue streams in music, and the modern gold standard, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” proves how a single seasonal hit can pay dividends for decades.
That is the real stakes of this release. A 23-year-old with three hit albums and multiple Grammys planting a flag in the Christmas canon is not just chasing a December chart placement, she is building a potential annual earner that returns every holiday season. Whether “take me home (4 christmas)” cracks the Mariah tier is a question only time and repeat plays can answer. For now, Rodrigo has entered the festive race early, armed with an original song, a celebrity video and a physical-sales plan, and positioned herself as one of the names to beat for Christmas No. 1.
