It was first released in December 1973 and, as with most Wizzard songs, was written and produced by the band's frontman Roy Wood—formerly of The Move and a founding member of Electric Light Orchestra.

Despite the song's strong, long-lasting popularity, it has reached no higher than number four on the UK Singles Chart, a position it occupied for four consecutive weeks from December 1973 to January 1974.

[1][2] The song was beaten to the 1973 Christmas Number 1 spot by Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody", which remained at the top of the charts for five weeks, from December 1973 to January 1974.

It was then found that the original tapes had been lost, so the song was re-recorded by the band and a new choir, from Kempsey Primary School in Worcestershire, was used (they had appeared on Roy Wood's solo single "Green Glass Windows" earlier that year).

As downloads became eligible for the weekly Top 75 from January 2007 onwards, and with exposure thanks to an Argos television advertisement, the song charted again in November and December 2007, this time reaching number 16.

In 1989, Wood re-recorded part of the song for Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers for use on their festive single Let's Party, which topped the British chart in December.

On 23 October 2013, it was announced that the six 1990s and early 2000s pop bands who reunited for the ITV2 series The Big Reunion - Five, 911, Atomic Kitten, B*Witched, Blue, Honeyz and Liberty X - would be releasing a cover version of "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday", with all proceeds split between six Text Santa charities: Age UK, Barnardo's, BeatBullying, the British Heart Foundation, CLIC Sargent and Help the Hospices.