“Merry Christmas” serves as Ed Sheeran’s first Christmas song, and serves as Elton John’s second Christmas single, following the release of 1973’s “Step Into Christmas.”

In an interview with NPO Radio 2 in October 2021, Ed revealed that Sir Elton asked him to do a song with him the previous year after the success of “Step into Christmas”. He also recalled writing the chorus of the song the same day he was asked by Sir Elton.

On 29 November 2021, Ed Sheeran and Elton John both announced the collaboration and its release date. They also stated that all proceeds from the song in the United Kingdom will go towards donations for the Ed Sheeran Suffolk Music Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

In November 2021, on an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Ed Sheeran revealed that he went to stay with John after writing the song’s chorus, in which they ended up making three Christmas songs together with “Merry Christmas” being one of them.

The second Christmas song they’ve written is called “Pull My Christmas Cracker, You’ll Get More Than A Bang.”