Lidl Christmas advert 2026: Shaun Williamson reworks Slade in Lidl Christmas Everybody

Lidl’s Christmas advert for 2026 is a singalong. Lidl Christmas Everybody stars Shaun Williamson, still best known as Barry in EastEnders and now the host of Barrioke, fronting a reworked version of Slade’s 1973 hit Merry Xmas Everybody with new lyrics about the discounter’s festive range. The full music video runs to three minutes 25 seconds on Lidl GB’s YouTube channel.

The work

Williamson goes from doorstep to doorstep with bags of Lidl food, picking up a growing crowd as he helps neighbours with their Christmas wishes. Chris Kamara, Capital FM presenter Kemi Rodgers and comedian Abi Clarke join him along the way, and the range on show runs from turkeys and Brussels sprouts to mince pies and chocolate gonks, as Marketing Week reported. The campaign was made with media agency OMD and social agency Coolr.

Joanna Gomer, marketing director at Lidl GB, called it “a Lidl twist on a Christmas classic”. The value message does the heavy lifting around it. Lidl says its Christmas range has picked up more than 160 awards and endorsements this year, up 128% on 2025, including the Good Housekeeping Institute’s Best Value Christmas Range title and 12 Best Value endorsements.

The launch also brings back Lidl’s Toy Bank, run with the charity network Neighbourly, which invites shoppers to donate unopened toys in stores across Great Britain from 5 November to 16 December. The scheme has handed out more than 250,000 toys over the past four years, as Decision Marketing noted.

Why it matters

Lidl has found a lane and is staying in it. In May it teamed up with Liberty X for Just a Lidl, and now it gives Slade the same treatment, with a cast picked for warmth and recognition rather than glamour. That is a sharp contrast with last year’s earnest film set to a cover of Wouldn’t It Be Nice, which finished 14th in our Christmas adverts 2025 ranking.

Pop parody suits a discounter. It is cheap to recognise, easy to share and leaves room for price and award claims without killing the mood, which matters while the discounters fight the big four on value, a fight Aldi sharpened when it accused rivals of using loyalty prices to dupe shoppers. It also lands a day after Aldi teased the return of Kevin the Carrot, its usual rival for discounter attention.

The weakness is that a song this familiar can carry any brand. The Christmas ad playbook rewards assets people link to one name, and a Barry singalong only becomes Lidl’s if it comes back. Watch how far the music video travels on social, where a singalong has the best chance.

See every UK Christmas advert of 2026 so far, with the films, updated as each one launches.