Every John Lewis Christmas advert, ranked

Nineteen films, three agencies and one department store that turned a November television break into a national event. Here are all the John Lewis Christmas adverts ranked, from the 2007 shadow puppets to Where Love Lives in 2025, and the answer to the obvious question is The Long Wait. Dougal Wilson’s 2011 film of a boy counting down the days so he can give a present rather than get one is the advert every John Lewis Christmas since has been trying to equal, and the one that started the Christmas arms race.

Each entry carries year, title, agency, music and director. Lowe London made the first two, adam&eveDDB made everything from 2009 to 2022, and Saatchi & Saatchi has had the account since 2023. Every credit has been checked against John Lewis’s own archive of the adverts or the retailer’s press material; where a detail could not be confirmed it has been left out.

John Lewis Christmas adverts ranked 19 to 11: the ones that did not stick

19. John Lewis: Clues (2008)

Agency Lowe London, director Malcolm Venville, music The Beatles’ From Me to You, sung by John Lewis partners.

The second John Lewis Christmas film is a montage of gifts as puzzles, each present a hint about the person who will open it, with the staff choir singing over the top. It is the film nobody remembers, because it has no story, only a device. Its one lasting contribution was the cover version: this was the first time John Lewis put a familiar song in a new voice at Christmas, and the retailer has barely stopped since. Crown verdict: the format’s rough draft, with the music idea in place and everything else still to come.

18. John Lewis: Shadows (2007)

Agency Lowe London, director Michael Gracey, music Prokofiev’s Morning Serenade from Romeo and Juliet.

The first John Lewis Christmas advert stacked presents into a pile that, lit from the right angle, threw the shadow of a woman and her dog in the snow. Gracey, who later directed The Greatest Showman, made a handsome piece of craft, and the line about giving people what they really want is still the brand’s brief in miniature. It ranks above Clues because it has a single image you can describe in a sentence. Crown verdict: a clever poster that happened to move, and a reminder that the John Lewis Christmas advert did not begin as a tearjerker.

17. John Lewis: Snapper, The Perfect Tree (2023)

Agency Saatchi & Saatchi, directors Megaforce, music Festa by Andrea Bocelli, adapted from a song by Le Feste Antonacci.

Saatchi’s first film for the account grew a Venus flytrap from a seed into a house-wrecking monster that ate the baubles, then had the family invite it back in on Christmas morning. The moral, that traditions can be replaced, was the agency telling the audience it knew the format was tired. The trouble was that a carnivorous plant is hard to love and Bocelli in Italian is hard to hum. Crown verdict: a brave first move for a new agency, and the John Lewis advert with the widest gap between ambition and affection.

16. John Lewis: Excitable Edgar (2019)

Agency adam&eveDDB, director Dougal Wilson, music REO Speedwagon’s Can’t Fight This Feeling, sung by Bastille’s Dan Smith.

Edgar is a small dragon who cannot stop breathing fire, which ruins the village’s Christmas until his friend Ava gives him a pudding to light. It was the first joint film for John Lewis and Waitrose, and the dragon sold as a soft toy, but the plot is Monty the Penguin with the emotion swapped for slapstick. Wilson, who directed five of these, was working the formula rather than finding one. Crown verdict: charming, professional and forgettable, which is the worst thing you can say about a John Lewis Christmas advert.

15. John Lewis: Unexpected Guest (2021)

Agency adam&eveDDB, director Mark Molloy, music Together in Electric Dreams, sung by Lola Young.

A space traveller called Skye crash-lands in a wood and a teenager, Nathan, shows her Christmas: mince pies, jumpers, a kiss under the mistletoe. Molloy shot it beautifully and Young’s voice launched a career, but an alien is a stranger to Christmas by definition, so the film is a tour of the season rather than a story inside it. It arrived in a year when everyone wanted comfort and delivered only pleasantness. Crown verdict: likeable rather than loved, and the moment it became clear the adam&eve era was running out of twists.

14. John Lewis: The Feeling (2009)

Agency adam&eve, director Benito Montorio, music Guns N’ Roses’ Sweet Child o’ Mine, sung by Taken by Trees.

Adam&eve’s first Christmas film for the retailer showed small children unwrapping grown-up presents with a child’s delight. The idea, that the best gifts make adults feel like children, is one of the sharpest the brand has had, and the whispery cover of a hard-rock anthem set the tone for a decade of festive reinterpretations. What holds it back is that it is a series of shots rather than a film. Crown verdict: the strategy that built the John Lewis Christmas advert, before anyone had worked out how to tell a story with it.

13. John Lewis: Moz the Monster (2017)

Agency adam&eveDDB, director Michel Gondry, music The Beatles’ Golden Slumbers, performed by Elbow.

A seven-year-old, Joe, discovers a snoring monster under his bed, they play all night, and the monster gives him a night light so he can finally sleep. Hiring Gondry was the right instinct and the practical, furry Moz is a joy, but the story loses its nerve when the monster has to leave. The film is best remembered for the illustrator Chris Riddell pointing out how closely it resembled his book Mr Underbed. Crown verdict: the most interesting director John Lewis has hired, given the least interesting script.

12. John Lewis: A Tribute to Givers (2010)

Agency adam&eve, director Eric Lynne, music Elton John’s Your Song, sung by Ellie Goulding.

A montage of people wrapping, hiding and hand-making presents for the people they love, ending with the line “For those who care about showing they care”. Goulding’s cover became the first John Lewis Christmas record to be a genuine hit, and the film established the brand’s tone of quiet, slightly melancholy generosity. It is a mood piece rather than a story, which is why it sits here. Crown verdict: the advert that found the John Lewis voice, a year before the brand found a plot to put it in.

11. John Lewis: Give a Little Love (2020)

Agency adam&eveDDB, director Oscar Hudson, music A Little Love, written and sung by Celeste.

The pandemic film passed a kindness from person to person, a boy fixing a hedgehog’s umbrella, a snowman, a pigeon, each handover switching to a different animation or live-action style. It was the first John Lewis Christmas advert with a commissioned song rather than a cover, and it ran as a joint charity appeal with Waitrose. The relay structure was clever and the year demanded it, but the film has no single scene you can quote back. Crown verdict: the right advert for 2020, and the one least likely to be watched again in any other year.

10 to 6: the good years

10. John Lewis: The Journey (2012)

Agency adam&eveDDB, director Dougal Wilson, music Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s The Power of Love, sung by Gabrielle Aplin.

A snowman leaves his garden, crosses fields, a road and a river, and turns up in a John Lewis buying a hat, scarf and gloves for the snowwoman he left behind. Wilson’s follow-up to The Long Wait was bigger in every way, and Aplin’s cover gave the retailer its first number one single. The reason it sits outside the top five is that the twist is a snowman shopping, which is charming, but not a feeling. Crown verdict: the advert that proved 2011 was not a fluke, and the first sign that the format would need more than a walk to a shop.

9. John Lewis: The Gifting Hour (2024)

Agency Saatchi & Saatchi, director François Rousselet, music Sonnet, performed by Richard Ashcroft.

A woman in the Oxford Street store steps through a rail of dresses and back through her own childhood with her sister, from bunk beds to teenage rows, before returning with the right present. It was the first John Lewis Christmas advert about the difficulty of choosing rather than the joy of giving, and the first set inside a John Lewis shop, which the brand had spent fifteen years politely avoiding. Rousselet’s Narnia-through-the-wardrobe device was the best piece of directing since Man on the Moon. Crown verdict: the film that steadied the Saatchi era, and a sister story that gets better with each viewing.

8. John Lewis: Where Love Lives (2025)

Agency Saatchi & Saatchi, director Jonathan Alric of The Blaze through Iconoclast, music Alison Limerick’s Where Love Lives, reimagined by Labrinth.

A grown-up son gives his father a vinyl copy of the 1990 house anthem, and as the needle drops the father is back on a dancefloor, then in a kitchen with a small boy, then on the sofa with the man that boy became. The line, “If you can’t find the words, find the gift”, is the sharpest John Lewis has had in years, and profits from the vinyl went to the Partnership’s Building Happier Futures programme for people who grew up in care. It premiered on 4 November 2025 during The Great British Bake Off. Crown verdict: a story about men who cannot say it, told through a record, and the best thing Saatchi has made for the account.

7. John Lewis: The Beginner (2022)

Agency adam&eveDDB, director Steve Rogers through Biscuit Filmworks, music Blink-182’s All the Small Things, performed by Postmodern Jukebox with Puddles Pity Party.

A middle-aged man falls off a skateboard for weeks, in the park, on the landing, in the street, and the reason is withheld until a foster child called Ellie arrives at the door with her board. John Lewis paired it with Action for Children and Who Cares?

Scotland and, for once, the cause was the story rather than a footnote. It is the only John Lewis Christmas advert in which the reveal is about a stranger’s need instead of a family’s present. Crown verdict: the best of the late adam&eve films, because the twist makes you think about someone else.

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

Agency adam&eveDDB, director Seb Edwards, music Your Song, performed by Elton John.

The film runs Elton’s life backwards, from a stadium to a recording studio to a school hall, and ends with a small boy in a dressing gown lifting the lid of the upright piano his mother has just given him. It won a Visual Effects Society award in 2019, and the line “Some gifts are more than just a gift” answered the accusation that this was a two-minute advert for a farewell tour. Some viewers never forgave it for that, which is why it is not in the top five. Crown verdict: the most expensive-looking John Lewis film and the most divisive, and the piano at the end earns both.

The best John Lewis Christmas advert: the top five

5. John Lewis: Buster the Boxer (2016)

Agency adam&eveDDB, director Dougal Wilson, music Randy Crawford’s One Day I’ll Fly Away, performed by Vaults.

A father builds a trampoline for his daughter Bridget, and overnight the foxes, a badger, a squirrel and a hedgehog discover it while the family dog watches through the window. On Christmas morning Buster gets there first. Part of the proceeds from the soft toys went to The Wildlife Trusts, the reported production cost of around £1 million was a fraction of the previous year’s, and it was watched 27.9 million times online. Crown verdict: the funniest John Lewis Christmas advert, and proof that a punchline can carry as much feeling as a tear.

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

Agency adam&eveDDB, director Kim Gehrig, music Oasis’s Half the World Away, sung by Aurora.

A girl called Lily spots an old man alone in a hut on the moon through her telescope and spends December trying to reach him, until a bunch of balloons delivers a telescope of his own. Gehrig was the first woman to direct a John Lewis Christmas film, the reported budget was about £7 million, and the partnership with Age UK gave the line “Show someone they’re loved this Christmas” somewhere to go. Our full review looks at how sad a nation was prepared to be. Crown verdict: the advert that made loneliness the subject of Christmas advertising, and the one charities still quote.

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

Agency adam&eveDDB, directors Elliot Dear and Yves Geleyn, music Keane’s Somewhere Only We Know, sung by Lily Allen.

A hare’s best friend is a bear who has never seen Christmas because he hibernates through it, so the hare leaves an alarm clock at the mouth of the cave. Hand-drawn 2D characters were animated onto stop-motion sets, a technique nobody had used at this scale for television, and Allen’s cover went to number one. 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 film that proved the format could survive without a real child in it.

2. John Lewis: Monty the Penguin (2014)

Agency adam&eveDDB, director Dougal Wilson, music John Lennon’s Real Love, sung by Tom Odell.

Sam and his penguin, Monty, do everything together, but Monty stares at every couple that passes, and on Christmas morning Sam gives him a penguin of his own, Mabel, before the last shot reveals that both are toys and the whole film has been a boy’s imagination. It reached 27.57 million online views, the retailer’s biggest to that point, and the merchandise sold out, which is why our review calls it the Christmas advert that became a shop. It is the purest expression of the formula: a child, a secret and a gift for someone else. Crown verdict: the year the John Lewis advert became a franchise, and the closest anyone has come to the original.

1. John Lewis: The Long Wait (2011)

Agency adam&eve, director Dougal Wilson, music The Smiths’ Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want, sung by Slow Moving Millie.

A boy wills December away, pushing his dinner around, staring at the clock, trying to make himself sleep, and on Christmas morning he runs past the pile of presents at the foot of his bed to hand his parents a badly wrapped gift he has been hiding all along. The twist is the whole idea, and it has never been bettered because it rewrites everything you have just watched without cheating. Our review traces how every rule of the modern Christmas advert, the reveal, the melancholy cover, the November premiere, starts here. Crown verdict: the advert that invented the John Lewis Christmas advert, and the one the other eighteen are measured against.

All John Lewis Christmas adverts in order

For anyone who wants the John Lewis Christmas advert list by year rather than by merit: Shadows (2007), Clues (2008), The Feeling (2009), A Tribute to Givers (2010), The Long Wait (2011), The Journey (2012), The Bear and the Hare (2013), Monty the Penguin (2014), Man on the Moon (2015), Buster the Boxer (2016), Moz the Monster (2017), The Boy and the Piano (2018), Excitable Edgar (2019), Give a Little Love (2020), Unexpected Guest (2021), The Beginner (2022), Snapper (2023), The Gifting Hour (2024) and Where Love Lives (2025). Dougal Wilson directed five of them, more than anyone else.

The chart record is the other way to read the list. Official Charts counts Gabrielle Aplin, Lily Allen and Elton John among the John Lewis singers who reached the top, and Ellie Goulding, Tom Odell and Aurora all had hits from theirs. When the song works, the advert usually has too.

How we ranked these

Every film was scored on idea, craft, bravery, effectiveness and legs, with idea and legs weighted heaviest. Idea means one thing a viewer could retell; craft means it survives a second viewing; bravery means it risked something, whether a foster child or a Venus flytrap; effectiveness means there is evidence it moved people or product; legs means it is still being talked about. That is why a 2011 film with a boy and a clock outranks anything with a bigger budget, and why the two most polished recent films sit mid-table. The list is refreshed each November, and we rank it against the other retailers in our list of the best Christmas adverts of all time.

Frequently asked

What is the best John Lewis Christmas advert?

The Long Wait, from 2011, is the best John Lewis Christmas advert by our criteria, followed by Monty the Penguin and The Bear and the Hare. It set the pattern of a child, a secret and a gift for someone else that the brand has followed ever since.

How many John Lewis Christmas adverts have there been?

There have been nineteen, one every year from 2007 to 2025. The first two were made by Lowe London, the next fourteen by adam&eveDDB, and the three since 2023 by Saatchi & Saatchi.

What is the John Lewis Christmas advert 2025?

Where Love Lives, made by Saatchi & Saatchi, in which a son gives his father a vinyl record and the music takes him back through their life together. Labrinth reimagined Alison Limerick’s 1990 house classic for the soundtrack and the film premiered on 4 November 2025.