The Creatives Room

Christmas Ads

Christmas advertising is its own genre, with its own conventions and its own ways of breaking them. At its best - John Lewis's annual films, the Coca-Cola truck, Harvey Nichols 'Sorry I Spent It on Myself' - it manages to be simultaneously heartfelt and commercially effective, which is a harder creative problem than it looks. The campaigns in this collection found ways to make the season feel genuinely significant rather than merely festive, which is the difference between Christmas advertising people remember and Christmas advertising that disappears on Boxing Day.

The campaigns in this collection

  1. Weekend en fanfare - Atelier BLVDR for 100 beste Plakate · 2025

    Poster for a Geneva brass-band weekend. The word "fanfare" blasted out in stacking, overlapping repeats visually mimics the parping, layered sound of marching bands - noise made typographic.

  2. Wander More - TripAdvisor

    TripAdvisor pushes against its own reputation for the safe recommendation and tells travellers to get off the route. Alongside the films, users could put their account into WanderMode, which scrambles their GPS location and builds itineraries with no fixed destination, so the product delivers the ai

  3. Christmas - Clas Ohlson

    A Christmas film for Clas Ohlson: a hapless, half-collapsed gingerbread man plays for warm humour - the Scandinavian home-and-hardware brand as the fixer that saves the festive day.

  4. The Most Beautiful Journey - Costa Cruises · Leo Burnett Italy · 2021

    Costa Cruises sought to reposition cruise travel following industry-wide post-pandemic disruption and growing skepticism toward sea tourism. The strategy turned the fundamental nature of cruising into its greatest asset with the core thesis: "The most beautiful journey on earth is on sea." By framin

  5. Family Christmas - Movistar · 2019

    Movistar "Family Christmas". Movistar frames festive togetherness and connection at Christmas.

  6. Share the Magic - SuperValu · TBWA\Dublin · 2021

    SuperValu "Share the Magic". A supermarket Christmas spot about sharing festive magic.

  7. Navidad - Decathlon · Ogilvy Madrid · 2022

    "Navidad" (Christmas) for Decathlon: a lone rider in a quiet forest frames the gift of the outdoors - the retailer pitching sport and nature as the season's best present.

  8. Albert Heijn - Christmas (2020) - Albert Heijn · TBWA · 2020

    Albert Heijn's 2020 Christmas film: the season seen through a child's wonderstruck eyes, the Dutch supermarket wrapping itself in warmth, family and festive togetherness.

  9. Kahk Konafa - Amir El Domiaty · 2021

    A festive family spot for the Egyptian sweets kahk and konafa: three generations together at home ties the traditional treats to holiday togetherness and celebration.

  10. Let's Go - Hertz · 2024

    Hickap "Inside Out". A spot framing the brand around authenticity and turning things inside out.

  11. Some Gifts You Just Can’t Buy - Toys R Us · 2019

    Moody night interior: a young boy sleeps in a striped red-green-and-white knit jumper, tucked against white bedding, his head near an ornate carved wooden bedstead. In the foreground a bedside table holds round wire-rimmed glasses; behind, a gauzy curtain glows with soft out-of-focus warm bokeh ligh

  12. The Elf - Teleflora · Wonderful Agency · 2019

    An extension of Teleflora's Love Out Loud platform, The Elf gives the holidays a credit line for the person actually running them. A toy elf on the shelf comes to life and watches mum Karen work through a punishing Christmas to-do list, all of it invisible labour, until a bouquet arrives from her mo

  13. Christmas Always Finds You - ITA Airways · Caffeina · 2024

    ITA Airways "Christmas Always Finds You". ITA Airways frames festive travel and reunions at Christmas.

  14. RAK Summer. Unscripted. - Ras Al Khaimah Tourism · Impact BBDO · 2025

    What if the creative team was too busy enjoying Ras Al Khaimah to make the ad? That's the campaign: the destination so good the work never gets scripted. The insight: tourism advertising's polish is its tell; an 'unmade' campaign performs the holiday feeling better than any drone shot.

  15. Ramadan Like a Pro - Sadia · Impact BBDO · 2023

    Ramadan food advertising all sounds the same, so Sadia skipped the sentiment and got practical: how to handle everything Ramadan throws at you - the hunger-fuelled tempers, the timing chaos - like a pro. The insight: the month's real drama is logistical; the brand that coaches you through it earns t

  16. The Show Must Go On - Amazon · Lucky Generals · 2020

    Amazon's 'The Show Must Go On': a young ballerina's performance is cancelled, so her neighbourhood stages it - torchlit, distanced, to Queen's anthem. The insight: the retailer casts itself as the enabler of other people's resilience; the box on the doorstep is only the prop, the community is the sh

  17. Let's Be Together This Christmas - airBaltic · DDB Latvia · 2018

    airBaltic's 'Let's Be Together This Christmas': the melancholy of holiday distance - life takes people apart, literally - answered by the airline that closes the distance. The insight: the route network as the gift; Christmas advertising's warmth with a boarding pass attached.

  18. Brotherly Love - hong kong disneyland · mcgarrybowen · 2021

    Hong Kong Disneyland's 'Brotherly Love': Santa's sleigh is rumoured broken, so a boy tries to make his little sister's Christmas himself - failing until magic intervenes. The insight: the park sells itself as the place where a child's effort to create wonder gets rescued; the brother IS the brand be

  19. IPL 2021 Anthem - India Ki Vibe Alag Hai - vivo · dentsu webchutney · 2021

    Vivo IPL 2021's anthem 'India Ki Vibe Alag Hai' by Nucleya: with fans locked at home, the celebration moves indoors - eight rappers, one foot-tapping track, cricket's energy re-routed through living rooms. The insight: when the stadium is empty, the anthem's job is to prove the vibe never needed one

  20. Togetherness Assembled - IKEA · Grey Dubai · 2023

    Al-Futtaim IKEA's Ramadan campaign 'Togetherness Assembled' by GREY Dubai: family moments of the holy month furnished by the brand's functional range. The insight: IKEA's assembly metaphor applied to the family itself - togetherness as the thing the furniture is actually for.

  21. What if Santa was an agency? - watercrab · Watercrab · 2014

    To promote its creative credentials during the holiday season, agency Watercrab tapped into the shared, painful humor of industry-specific client dynamics. The self-promotional campaign reimagines Santa Claus's annual operation as a chaotic, deadline-driven advertising agency. By mapping agency pain

  22. Mini Whopper Jr. Halloween - Burger King · Ogilvy · 2021

    For Halloween, Burger King shrank its Whopper Jr. to the size and shape of a piece of candy, orderable only through its app. The insight: Halloween is built around bite-sized treats, so a candy-shaped mini burger turns the Whopper into a seasonal sweet and gives fans a playful reason to open the BK

  23. 15kg extra Baggage Allowance - findmyfare.com · Leo Burnett, Sri Lanka · 2015

    The campaign addresses the commoditization of online travel booking by highlighting findmyfare.com’s competitive promotion of an extra 15kg baggage allowance. It taps into the relatable cultural insight that budget travelers will go to absurd, uncomfortable lengths—like wearing multiple layers of he

  24. California camper van - Sightseeing - Volkswagen · 2018

    Volkswagen's "Sightseeing" for the California camper: the van has spent 30 years discovering sights while carrying a blind spot at its rear - now fixed by an optional rear-view camera. The campaign reframes the camera as a new way of seeing the sights, keeping the traveller DNA intact. The insight:

Why this collection is worth studying

The challenge of Christmas advertising is that everyone is trying to do the same thing at the same time, which means the bar for being noticed is higher than at any other point in the year. The campaigns that break through tend to do so by finding an angle on the season that feels specific and true rather than generically warm. Specificity, as always, is the engine of emotional impact.

See also

Best Christmas Ads of All Time - The Creatives Room