Every December, Britain gathers around its screens for a new kind of festive tradition: the release of the year’s Christmas ads. What started as simple, heart-tugging tales of love and togetherness has grown into a full-blown season of cinematic spectacle, complete with mascots, sequels, and orchestral soundtracks.
Over the past five years, these ads have traced our collective journey: the quiet reflection of 2020’s lockdown Christmas; the cautious optimism of 2021; the purposeful reassurance of 2022; the joyful escapism of 2023; and the glossy, character-driven fantasy of 2024. Each year, they’ve mirrored the national mood, shifting from empathy to excess as the country tried to shake off crisis fatigue.
The real questions this year is: with the cost of living still biting and a brutal Autumn Budget on the horizon, will brands keep turning up the sparkle or take things back to something simpler? Will we see another year of lavish magic and familiar mascots, or a return to the intimacy and humanity that the pandemic brought about? Either way, the Christmas ad season has become so much more than a marketing moment. It’s a mirror to who we are, and how we’re feeling, as the year draws to a close.
First we’ll review 2025’s festive ads as they’re released. And then we’ll get the verdict from the creative industry on who did it brilliantly, which ads were hit and miss, and what they felt the overall theme was from this year’s creative offerings.
Marks & Spencer: Driving Home
M&S casts Dawn French as a weary commuter inching through gridlock to Chris Rea, then flips the jam into a rolling party when her fairy alter-ego conjures an M&S food truck. Inside is the spread people actually buy the brand for, threaded with a Tom Kerridge cameo that nods to chef-led range development.
The spot is simple and legible, with one set-piece, one song, and strong table appeal. On top of that, it sells abundance without sliding into excess, which feels right for the year. Perhaps most importantly, it gives you a good festive chuckle about the very real struggles of Christmas commuting.
ASDA: A Very Merry Grinchmas
For sheer technical craft and cultural timing, Asda’s Grinch might be this year’s most audacious move. Rather than inventing a new mascot, Lucky Generals and director Dexter Fletcher reached back to a millennial touchstone – The Grinch – and rebuilt him for live-action, twenty-five years after Jim Carrey first donned the fur. Every part of this production screams painstaking detail: four hours of prosthetics a day; colour-matching to achieve the perfect “pistachio green” that looked warm under harsh supermarket light; and a performance calibrated between expressive and eerie, refined over endless prototypes.
What’s striking is how physical it all feels. In an era dominated by CGI sparkle, almost everything here was done in-camera. Fletcher (of Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody fame) insisted on practical magic, such as real sets, real texture, real charm. Even the vocals are intentionally imperfect: when the actor’s rough-edged singing take made the team smile, they kept it, choosing sincerity over studio polish.
The entire look was vetted by Dr Seuss Enterprises in San Diego, who worked closely on the details, like the rounded belly, the cat-like face, and the tricky yellow-green eyes that risked turning uncanny. The payoff is a character that feels nostalgic and freshly British, stomping down Asda aisles to a cabaret of party food and pyjama deals, melting even his own miserly heart in the glow of “Asda Price”.
Sainsbury’s: BFG: Unexpected Guest
New Commercial Arts brings back the BFG and pairs him with Annie, a real Sainsbury’s colleague, for a fast, warm caper that rescues Christmas spreads from a ravenous giant. It’s briskly plotted, with breadsticks restocked mid-chaos and canapés replenished through windows. It’s also unapologetically food-first, using the Taste the Difference range as the story engine rather than a cutaway.
Rogue Films and Electric Theatre Collective give the world scale and sparkle while keeping the tone human, and the closing invitation to “make room at the table” crystallises the brand line, Good food for all of us in a non-preachy way. The cinema rollout alongside Wicked is also a smart frequency play.
ALDI: Kevin’s Big Question (teaser)
To mark Kevin the Carrot’s tenth year, McCann Manchester opens with a Love-Actually-coded proposal outside Katie’s door, then pauses. It’s a clever, episodic cliffhanger that buys weeks of conversation.
Notably, the teaser is lean on product and big on earned media mechanics, with ITV and radio “breaking news” tie-ins, OOH roadblocks, and a wave of short films to drip-feed the payoff. It’s Aldi’s tried-and-true Christmas serialisation, crafted to feel nationwide without overspending the reveal.
John Lewis: Where Love Lives
John Lewis has always specialised in emotional shorthand, but this year’s spot lands differently. It’s still sentimental – and yes, it still brings a tear to your eye – but its nostalgia belongs to a new generation. Directed by Saatchi & Saatchi and set to Alison Limerick’s 1990 club classic Where Love Lives (reimagined by Labrinth), the ad follows a father who finds a vinyl copy of the song under the tree from his teenage son. When the needle drops, the living room dissolves into strobe lights and memory of the dad’s youth in a 90s club, his toddler son taking first steps in flashes of light, and finally the quiet embrace that says what words can’t.
It’s gorgeous filmmaking, but what really resonates is the generational shift it signals. As our editor noted after watching: “For the first time, it’s an ad that feels millennial – Gen X, even. The boomers are on their way out; we’re the older ones now. To recognise something from our youth… well, that’s the shift happening.” The world moves fast, but some truths stay fixed, like fathers and sons, and all the things they can’t say. By framing that universal tension through a song from the parents’ own youth, John Lewis closes the loop with Christmas advertising speaking directly to the generation that grew up watching it.
Argos: Connie & Trevor x Simon Bird
T&P evolves its “intervention” platform by having mascots Connie and Trevor kidnap Simon Bird to prove Argos is more than toys. The gag plays like a Guy Ritchie pastiche – a noirish drive to a warehouse that turns out to be a cathedral of grown-up gifts – but the writing keeps it family-safe, helped by Bird’s precise deadpan and David Kerr’s brisk direction.
Because it builds straight off the autumn work, Christmas feels like chapter two rather than a seasonal detour, which is both intentional and effective.
Amazon: Joy Ride (returning film)
Amazon brings back 2023’s trio of lifelong friends who rediscover sledging joy, this time positioning the return as tradition rather than rerun. An orchestral take on The Beatles’ In My Life gives it lift, while the small act – padded seat cushions ordered on the app – keeps Amazon’s role modest and human.
Instead of chasing novelty, the ad is banking on the power of recognition in a season that loves rituals.
Boots: Puss in Boots at the Snow Queen’s Ball
Boots goes full storybook with a Puss-in-Boots dash to the Snow Queen’s Ball, guided by a magic mirror through gifting stops that map neatly onto categories in store.
The tone is nimble and merch-friendly (you can almost see the end-caps) and the brand’s playful side lands without losing the sense that Boots is the high-street fix when you’ve got ten minutes and a list.
Lidl: Why Do We Love Christmas So Much?
A young narrator and a gentle Beach Boys cover steer Lidl toward generosity and small kindnesses, with the nationwide Toy Bank as the concrete action. It’s understated and community-minded rather than glossy, which will resonate for many; creatively it could use one sharper goosebump beat, but the retailer’s role is credible and clear.
Morrisons: Making More of Christmas
Leo Burnett UK turns the camera on the people who make the season possible, from farmers and bakers to fishers and drivers. It tracks their year of graft to a new recording of Stop the Cavalry.
Aaron Stoller directs with documentary gloss and zero HFSS cutaways, an elegant way to navigate constraints while showing off the supermarket’s unusual vertical integration. The final reveal – a knock at the door that’s a Morrisons driver, not St Nick – lands the line “More reasons…” with a grin.
Theme check
So far we’re seeing comfort characters used with intent, music as an emotional shortcut, and a pragmatic heart that puts food, value and community where the magic lands. If Tesco, McDonald’s, Waitrose, TK Maxx and the rest follow, we’ll see whether the balance tips further toward spectacle or stays with this more understated, practical cheer.
