Best ever Christmas advert (and yes I know it's November and there is a Christmas forum)

[Crunchymum]

The 2025 JL is out and it's causing quite the debate, had me in floods (twice!) as it's quite poignant to me.

A few other adverts from years gone by have been mentioned but just wondering what everyone's favourite Christmas adverts are.

Aldi's Christmas Carrot one with Kevin and co. It was colourful, festive, I enjoyed the puns and it all ended happily.

I love this one so much that I have the soundtrack version on my Spotify playlist.

My favourite advert is the John Lewis one (obvs) from I think around 2011 where the little boy is constantly counting down to Christmas and then it's revealed that he's desperate to give the present he's chosen to his parents.

Ok, this made me cry!!!!! I’ve never seen this one 💗

The one with the penguins, the dog on the trampoline, the singing oven gloves, the dragon who kept setting fire to stuff - and I'm sure there are more I can't think of.
As for this year's JL one, well I can see why people of that age group like it but it just feels a bit glum to me - I like them to be more festive. I quite like this year's Asda Grinch one, although not a fan of the Grinch as a rule.

Brilliant ad, brilliant song. I may be the target demographic for that ; )

Was the one with ‘everyone’s a fruit and nut bar ‘ to the tune of the sugarplum fairy a Christmas one? I clearly remember it from childhood

The J L ad leaves me cold. Much prefer the one with the hibernating bear .

OK I have thought about this (too much) and here is my pitch for why the Monty the Penguin John Lewis advert is the best ever:

1. The penguin is beautifully realised, integrating lovely observation of real penguin behaviours (how they swim, belly-slide, waddle) into the narrative alongside a sprinkling of anthropomorphism. The CGI is also great (some people thought they'd actually used a real penguin!)

2. It's genuinely funny, with some great comic timing (the way the penguin peeps out from behind the tree during hide and seek, stealthily grabbing the fishfinger. The lead child has some great facial expressions.

3. It's built around not one but TWO resonant emotional truths - the desire for love/connection and the power of children's imagination.

4. Very clever build up to the double pay-off at the end - aww the penguin has a mate, then BOOM - the penguin is actually the child's well-loved soft toy! We're in bits!

So it has it all - charming, funny, heart-warming and emotionally with a great narrative and beautifully executed. No-one will persuade me otherwise. #TeamMonty

The best ever Christmas advert in my humble opinion was the one on Christmas day during the war and they played football

Which was an almost shot-for shot rip off of Macca's Pipes of Peace vid, which imo was much better. See it on Youtube. (It's the 1914 Christmas Truce.)

Not really an advert, but this by a country mile.

(Context: player is called Lenell John-Lewis and there was a chant when he played - “Lenell John-Lewis, his name is a shop”. )

Do you think the girl is supposed to be neurodivergent? Maybe I am just projecting.

I completely agree with all this, especially the double reveal. The boy is very well cast as well. It was also extremely effective- JL sales that Christmas up 5.5% YOY versus market average of 1.5%.

There you go, cold hard financial evidence!

I think The Long Wait runs Monty a very close second - presumably they were done by the same team. It's the OG John Lewis ad after all and shares the same gentle observational humour, brilliantly cast child and feel-good tear-jerker twist. But Monty I think just perfects all of that...and it has a PENGUIN.

Thanks, just watched it on YouTube very similar to the Sainsburys Christmas advert.

The new JL ad has split our family. DH loves it, smiles and starts dancing like he’s 21 again.
Me, I get its sentiment but don’t have boys so feels irrelevant to focus on the father/son relationship.
no feel good for me.

DDs (in their 20’s) just don’t get it at all.

i prefer their adds that spark the magic of a family Christmas

I agree and was just coming on to say Monty the Penguin! I still have several of the Monty tote bags John Lewis gave out free (different times!) and use them every December.

For me the only ones that come close to it are the Sainsbury’s Mog ad and possibly the Paddington one. (But the Mog one is better.)