Who will be Christmas No 1 - Little Mix or Military Wives?

Now that The X Factor is over, the race to become this year's Christmas No 1 is on. Barring any last-minute shocks, it's likely to be either Little Mix or the Military Wives Choir – two all-female groups flung together for two very different reality-television shows. Who will come out on top?


 
Military Wives Choir
Who are they? A group of women whose husbands and partners are currently serving overseas.
Shot to fame on ... The Choir, the series in which choirmaster Gareth Malone polishes a group of unrefined singers until they can perform beyond their wildest imaginations. BBC2, three million viewers.
The song: Wherever You Are, a haunting choral number, all for charity, written by royal wedding composer Paul Mealor with lyrics taken from real-life letters sent between servicemen and their wives. It is, if you're in the right frame of mind, spine-tingling.
Tearjerk factor: Fairly high, especially when accompanied by the video of servicemen crouching in poppy fields.
Breakout star: Samantha Stevenson, a painfully insecure woman who manages to combine a crystalline voice with enough tattoos to shame a lorry driver.
Where they'll be next year: Still a success, despite having to go it alone after Malone ditches them for a choir that's even more likely to make the public well up – a handful of sad-eyed puppies with bandages on their legs.
Current Christmas No 1 odds: 4/7

Little Mix
Who are they? Formerly known as Rhythmix, Little Mix are a reality-television girl group thrown together by Tulisa from N-Dubz, largely because they happened to be the same height.
Shot to fame on ... The X Factor, the series that uses sporadic musical performances to pad out several hours of lucrative yoghurt advertising. ITV1, 10 million viewers.
The song: Cannonball, a cover of a track by dreary indie-folk troubadour Damien Rice. Its choice has no special significance other than the fact that someone at Simon Cowell's production company quite liked it. It is, regardless of your frame of mind, tedious.
Tearjerk factor: You will cry when you hear Cannonball. Probably because you can't understand why it hasn't finished yet.
Breakout star: Perrie Edwards, AKA the blonde one on the end who sings most of their songs. If Cannonball doesn't get to No 1, Edwards will ditch the others and go solo in a heartbeat.
Where they'll be next year: Variously, solo career, jungle, local radio DJ, Loose Women.
Current Christmas No 1 odds: 2/1

Guardian