Tesco – That’s what makes it Christmas – 2025
From a creative standpoint, Tesco hasn’t historically been the benchmark for Christmas advertising. This year, however, they’ve meaningfully elevated their craft, delivering some of the season’s most assured work. Rather than manufacturing obligatory festive cheer, the campaign leans into the beautifully unvarnished reality of the holiday: families in all their contradictory, endearing complexity. The line “I had an opinion” is especially well-judged — a micro-moment of domestic truth that will echo, almost verbatim, across households nationwide.
Apple – A critter carol
Bags of joy. Apple once again demonstrates how to stretch creative ambition without collapsing into the sentimental sludge that defines so much seasonal advertising. A troupe of woodland animal puppets document their own musical performance on the iPhone 17 — a premise that could easily descend into novelty, yet is rescued by disciplined writing and a refreshingly barbed sense of humour. Lines such as “If they hunt you down, I’ll avenge your death” signal a brand comfortable with tonal tension, choosing wit and self-awareness over the default festive grin. It’s proof that Christmas work doesn’t have to anesthetise its audience to be effective. The industry would benefit from more brands showing this level of nerve.
Waitrose – The perfect gift
Ambitious, sharply funny, and unapologetically entertaining, this is the rare piece of Christmas advertising that doesn’t feel the need to elbow you in the ribs to justify its own existence. Waitrose understands that Christmas is as much a cultural performance as a retail moment, and the work leans confidently into that truth. Drafting in the endlessly dependable Jo Wilkinson is less stunt casting, more quiet masterstroke—familiar, game, and perfectly calibrated to the tone. It’s clever without being clever-clever, self-aware without winking itself to death, and enjoyable in a way that makes the act of selling feel almost incidental. Which, of course, is precisely the point.
Google Pixel – It’s pixel, actually
Love Actually A film for people who make mulled wine their entire December personality. This Pixel 10 execution, by contrast, opts for a far more disciplined form of Christmas storytelling: a clear, charmingly delivered product demonstration that understands its job and resists the annual temptation to dissolve into tinsel, treacle, and narrative excess. It’s a reminder that utility, when presented with confidence and restraint, can be just as festive as nostalgia.
John Lewis – Where love lives
John Lewis largely calibrates the tone with its usual assurance, albeit unapologetically tuned to the Hacienda Classical in the park demographic. That said, any lingering cynicism is swiftly disarmed by a line of genuine, strategic elegance: “When you can’t find the words, find the gift.” It’s a piece of copy that does exactly what great Christmas advertising should —distilling emotional complexity into a simple, sellable truth. On that line alone, the work more than earns its place.
Ben Ducker is ECD at global creative agency IMA.
