The 25 best Christmas adverts of all time, ranked

A small boy stares at a clock. A soldier climbs out of a trench. A penguin wants a girlfriend. The best Christmas adverts are British television’s one genuinely shared cultural event, and since John Lewis turned a two-minute film into a national unveiling in 2011, every retailer has been chasing the same November moment. This is Ad Ranking’s list of the twenty-five that deserve the word “best”, ranked, and refreshed every November once the new crop has landed.

The criteria are the ones we apply to any campaign. Is there one idea a stranger could retell? Does the craft hold up on a second viewing? Did the brand publish evidence that it worked? And has it lasted, either by being repeated every year or by changing what everyone else made next? Agency and year credits have been checked for every entry; if a detail could not be verified it has been left out.

25 to 16: the best UK Christmas adverts of the last decade

25. Boots: The Christmas Makeover (2024)

VML and The Pharm, WPP’s dedicated Boots team, cast Bridgerton’s Adjoa Andoh as a Mrs Claus running a beauty “werkshop” of elves and influencers, directed by Dave Meyers to Eve’s Who’s That Girl. It is a product-led film that behaves like a music video, and it knew exactly which shelves it was there to clear. Boots ran it for seven weeks across TV, cinema, radio, print and social. Crown verdict: the best recent example of a retailer dressing a range ad as an event and getting away with it.

24. Argos: The Christmas Fool (2018)

The&Partnership London invented a long-eared, bell-wearing imp who unwraps presents, steals sellotape and knocks the angel off the tree while families try to get the house ready. The 90-second film sold Click & Collect and same-day delivery as the fool-proofing, which is a rare case of the logistics message being the joke rather than the tag. Joint executive creative director Yan Elliott called the character the chaos of Christmas made flesh. Crown verdict: a proper comic creature in a genre that usually settles for a cute one.

23. Barbour: Thanks Mrs C (2019)

For its 125th anniversary Barbour licensed Raymond Briggs’s grumbling Father Christmas, animated by Illuminated Films with Dave Unwin, who had directed the original 1991 special. Mrs Claus quietly gets his worn wax jacket repaired rather than replaced, which lets a heritage brand talk about durability without lecturing. Barbour had used Briggs’s Snowman in 2016 and 2017, but this was the better fit of character to product. Crown verdict: a licensing deal used with restraint, and a repair message years before the rest of fashion caught up.

22. Tesco: This Is Christmas, Nothing’s Stopping Us (2021)

BBH’s post-lockdown film of Britain refusing to cancel Christmas included Santa flashing a Covid pass at border control, and 5,009 complaints reached the ASA, making it the most complained-about ad of the year. The regulator found no breach, reading the scene as a joke about travel rules rather than a message about vaccines. The rest of the film, brandy-soaked puddings and bribed elves, was cheerfully ordinary. Crown verdict: proof that a supermarket can make the news and win the ruling at the same time.

21. McDonald’s: Inner Child (2020)

Leo Burnett London’s animated teenager, Tom, is too old for Christmas until a stop at McDonald’s for Reindeer Treats, which are carrots, lets his younger self back in. Steph Ellis and Rory Hall wrote it, Againstallodds directed through Passion Pictures, and Becky Hill’s cover of Forever Young raised money for FareShare. It launched on 15 November 2020 in the I’m a Celebrity break. Crown verdict: the tenderest thing a burger chain has done at Christmas, and a rare festive ad about a parent rather than a child.

20. Disney: From Our Family to Yours (2020)

Disney’s in-house EMEA team, led by Angela Affinita, and Flux Animation Studios told a three-minute story of a grandmother, Lola, her granddaughter and a Mickey Mouse toy given to her by her father in 1940. Griff sang Love Is a Compass, and the campaign marked forty years of Disney’s partnership with Make-A-Wish across 26 EMEA countries and beyond. It became a three-part series over successive Christmases. Crown verdict: the most polished animated festive film of its year, made without a retailer to sell for.

19. Lidl: Big on a Christmas You Can Believe In (2020)

Karmarama’s animated singalong sets up every cliché of the genre, a robin on a windowsill, a lonely grandparent, a magical friendship, and undercuts each one with a price. “Could a friendship be ahead? No, it’s a Christmas ad for Lidl with great prices instead.” It premiered in the I’m a Celebrity launch show. Crown verdict: the first Christmas ad to parody the Christmas ad, and it did so while still selling the turkey.

18. John Lewis: Where Love Lives (2025)

Saatchi & Saatchi’s third John Lewis Christmas film sends a father back to a 1990s dancefloor when his adult son gives him a vinyl copy of Alison Limerick’s Where Love Lives, reimagined by Labrinth. Jonathan Alric of The Blaze directed through Iconoclast, and the line, “If you can’t find the words, find the gift”, is the sharpest John Lewis has had in years. It premiered on 4 November 2025 during Bake Off. Crown verdict: a story about men who cannot say it, told with a house record, and the best of the Saatchi era so far.

17. Waitrose: The Perfect Gift (2025)

Wonderhood Studios made a four-minute romantic comedy in which Joe Wilkinson’s widower meets Keira Knightley at the cheese counter over a Sussex Charmer cheddar. Molly Manners directed through Biscuit Filmworks, James’s She’s a Star did the soundtrack, and Richard Curtis was reported approving. The length is the point: Waitrose has decided it is a food entertainment brand and is behaving like one. Crown verdict: the most ambitious format of Christmas 2025, and the first supermarket short that earns its running time.

16. John Lewis: The Beginner (2022)

Steve Rogers, through Biscuit, filmed a middle-aged man falling off a skateboard for weeks, and adam&eveDDB withheld the reason until the last shot: a foster child, Ellie, arriving with her board. Postmodern Jukebox’s cover of Blink-182’s All the Small Things played it straight, and the partnership with Action for Children and Who Cares? Scotland gave the story somewhere to go. Crown verdict: the best of the late adam&eve films, because the twist is about a stranger rather than a present.

15 to 6: Christmas adverts that set the standard

15. Marks & Spencer: Christmas with Love from Mrs Claus (2016)

RKCR/Y&R hired Oscar winner Tom Hooper to direct Janet McTeer as a Mrs Claus with a helicopter, a red coat and a better plan than her husband, helping a boy who has spent the year fighting his sister give her the right present. Rachel Portman composed the score. It launched at 9pm on 11 November 2016 in the first break of Gogglebox. Crown verdict: the most cinematic Christmas ad a British retailer has made, and the last time M&S looked like it wanted to win the season outright.

14. Sainsbury’s: The BFG (2024)

New Commercial Arts put Roald Dahl’s giant in a Sainsbury’s with a real colleague, Sophie, hunting salmon, sprouts and Stilton to make Christmas “phizz-whizzing”. He returned in 2025 with a new colleague, Annie, and a Greedy Giant raiding Taste the Difference from homes across the country, produced by Rogue Films with effects by Electric Theatre Collective. Crown verdict: the smartest licensed character since Kevin the Carrot, and the first time Sainsbury’s has had a Christmas franchise worth keeping.

13. Waitrose: Sweet Suspicion (2024)

Saatchi & Saatchi’s two-part whodunnit put Matthew Macfadyen’s detective in a family kitchen to find out who took the Red Velvet Bauble dessert, with Joe Wilkinson, Rakhee Thakrar and Sian Clifford as suspects, directed by Lucy Forbes through Smuggler. The culprit, Steve the cook, was revealed weeks later. Waitrose says part one drew more than 150 million views, its biggest Christmas campaign. Crown verdict: the first supermarket to make people wait for a second episode, and the reason 2025 was full of serials.

12. Amazon: Give a Little Bit (2017)

Lucky Generals turned the smile on the box into a mouth and had a global fleet of parcels sing Roger Hodgson’s Supertramp hit from conveyor belt to doorstep, directed by Nick Gordon at Somesuch. Kantar named it the most impactful Christmas campaign of 2017 and the boxes came back for three years. Crown verdict: the only Christmas ad on this list built from packaging, and the one that made Amazon feel like a brand rather than a warehouse.

11. John Lewis: The Boy and the Piano (2018)

Seb Edwards ran Elton John’s life backwards from a stadium to a piano under a childhood tree, with Elton performing Your Song himself rather than lending it to a newcomer. It won a Visual Effects Society award in 2019, and ITV rescored its programme themes for piano as a teaser. Some viewers called it an ad for Elton; adam&eveDDB’s answer was the line “Some gifts are more than just a gift.” Crown verdict: the most expensive-looking John Lewis ad and the most divisive, which is a fair trade for a piano.

10. Apple: Misunderstood (2013)

TBWAMedia Arts Lab and Park Pictures shot a sullen teenager glued to his iPhone through a family Christmas in Edmonton, then revealed he had been filming a home movie for them all along. It won the 2014 Emmy for Outstanding Commercial, beating Nike, GE and two Budweiser Super Bowl spots. Crown verdict: the best festive product demonstration ever made, because the product is only visible once you know what it was doing.

9. John Lewis: Buster the Boxer (2016)

Dougal Wilson’s foxes, badgers and hedgehog bounce on Bridget’s trampoline all night, and in the morning the family dog gets there first. Vaults covered Randy Crawford’s One Day I’ll Fly Away, John Lewis gave part of the soft toy proceeds to The Wildlife Trusts, and the reported production cost was £1 million against 27.9 million views. Crown verdict: the funniest John Lewis ad, and the one that understood a punchline can carry as much feeling as a tear.

8. Irn-Bru: The Snowman (2006)

The Leith Agency’s Gerry Farrell, Michael Kinlan and Mark Davies rewrote Raymond Briggs: a ginger boy and his snowman fly over Edinburgh to Walking in the Air until the snowman tries to take the boy’s can, at which point he is dropped. Robin Shaw animated it at Sherbet. It has aired almost every Scottish Christmas since and a sequel followed. Crown verdict: the best festive ad made outside London, and the only one that ends with someone falling out of the sky.

7. John Lewis: Man on the Moon (2015)

Kim Gehrig, the first woman to direct a John Lewis Christmas film, put an old man alone on the moon and a girl called Lily determined to reach him with a telescope. Aurora sang Oasis’s Half the World Away, the retailer partnered with Age UK, and the reported cost was about £7 million. The line, “Show someone they’re loved this Christmas”, is still the brief in one sentence. Crown verdict: the ad that made loneliness the subject of Christmas advertising, and the one charities still quote.

6. Aldi: Kevin the Carrot (2016)

McCann Manchester’s Clive Davis and Andy Fenton pitched a 3p carrot who crosses a Christmas dinner table to meet Santa, narrated by Jim Broadbent, and a decade later Kevin has proposed to Katie with Love Actually cue cards in a Psyop-directed three-parter that ended with a wedding on 27 November 2025. Aldi says the ads have scored five stars in System1 testing for six consecutive years. Crown verdict: the most valuable character in British retail, and the only Christmas franchise that has got funnier with age.

The top five best Christmas adverts of all time

5. Coca-Cola: Holidays Are Coming (1995)

W.B. Doner’s “Christmas Caravans” sent three red lorries, each strung with more than 30,000 bulbs and lit with help from Industrial Light & Magic, through a snowy town to a three-word jingle. The prototypes were white until a brand manager asked where the red was. Thirty years on the trucks still tour Britain and their first airing is treated as the start of the season. Coca-Cola has remade the film with generative AI for recent Christmases, to a divided reception. Crown verdict: the only Christmas ad that is itself a date in the calendar.

4. John Lewis: The Bear and the Hare (2013)

Elliot Dear and Yves Geleyn combined hand-drawn 2D animation with stop-motion sets so a hare could give a bear, who has never seen Christmas because he hibernates, an alarm clock. Lily Allen’s cover of Keane’s Somewhere Only We Know went to number one twice, the film drew 17.2 million views, and part of the sales went to Save the Children’s Philippine typhoon appeal. Crown verdict: the most beautiful thing John Lewis has made, and the one that proved the format could survive without a real child in it.

3. John Lewis: Monty the Penguin (2014)

Dougal Wilson’s film follows Sam and his penguin friend Monty, who is visibly lonely every time a couple walks past, until Christmas morning brings Mabel and the reveal that Monty was a toy all along. Tom Odell covered The Beatles’ Real Love and the film reached 27.57 million online views, the retailer’s biggest to that point. It is the purest expression of the John Lewis formula: a child, a secret and a gift that is for someone else. Crown verdict: the moment the John Lewis Christmas ad stopped being an ad and became a franchise with merchandise.

2. Sainsbury’s: 1914 (2014)

AMV BBDO recreated the Christmas truce in the centenary year: a British soldier, Jim, climbs out to meet a German, Otto, and the two sides exchange greetings, a game of football and a bar of chocolate. Sainsbury’s made the film with the Royal British Legion and sold the chocolate for £1 with proceeds to the charity. It also drew more than a hundred complaints from people who felt a war should not sell groceries. Crown verdict: the most ambitious Christmas ad ever made in Britain, and the argument about it is part of the achievement.

1. John Lewis: The Long Wait (2011)

Dougal Wilson’s first John Lewis Christmas film for adam&eve shows a boy willing the days away, refusing dinner, staring at the clock, and on Christmas morning walking past his own presents to give one to his parents. Slow Moving Millie’s cover of The Smiths’ Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want set the template for a decade of festive cover versions, and 8.23 million people watched it on launch. Everything that followed, the reveal, the melancholy piano, the November premiere, starts here. Crown verdict: the advert that invented the modern British Christmas ad, and no one has beaten the twist since.

John Lewis Christmas adverts ranked: the ones that missed the cut

Seven John Lewis films make the twenty-five, which leaves seven that do not. The Journey (2012, Dougal Wilson, Gabrielle Aplin’s The Power of Love) gave the retailer its first number one single but is a snowman walking. Moz the Monster (2017, Michel Gondry, Elbow) is remembered mainly for Chris Riddell’s claim that it resembled his book Mr Underbed. Excitable Edgar (2019) was a joint Waitrose production with a dragon who set fire to things, and Give a Little Love (2020, Oscar Hudson, Celeste) was the first with a commissioned song rather than a cover.

Unexpected Guest (2021, Mark Molloy) put an alien in a wood to Lola Young’s Together in Electric Dreams and was likeable rather than loved. Snapper (2023, Megaforce, Andrea Bocelli) was Saatchi & Saatchi’s first and grew a Venus flytrap that ate the baubles. The Gifting Hour (2024), François Rousselet’s Narnia-through-the-clothes-rail film to Richard Ashcroft’s Sonnet, was the best of this group and will move up if the sister story ages as well as we think it might.

How we ranked these

Every entry was scored on the idea, the craft, verified evidence of effect and staying power, with idea and staying power weighted heaviest. That is why a 1995 lorry sits above films with bigger production budgets, and why a supermarket’s two-minute war film outranks most of the retailer that invented the genre. Numbers are used only where the brand, its agency or a named research firm published them. The list is reviewed each November once the year’s adverts have aired, so a 2026 film that earns a place will appear here, and something further down will go.