12 Best Christmas Ads To Boost Your Holiday Spirit

12 Best Christmas Ads To Boost Your Holiday Spirit

It’s Christmas time and, even as you’re reading this post, I’m probably in the kitchen getting ready to satisfy my family’s sweet tooth with some Christmas baking and candy making.

As much as I love my Christmas in the kitchen, the thing that really gets me in the holiday spirit is music and video. I enjoy all the great Christmas specials and movies,  but one of the things I most look forward to is seeing all the creative Christmas ads every year. While we have some good ones here in the states, it seems that most of the best Christmas ads come from our friends across the pond.

I’ve favorited a few from YouTube over the years, so today I am sharing with you my list of the 12 best Christmas ads to help you get some holiday spirit–or to give you a boost if you need it.

For those of you who are wondering what posting awesome Christmas videos has to do with building your business, there is definitely a link here. I’ve been a specialist in visual and verbal communication since before I went to college to study journalism and before I became a professional photographer. These videos are not only entertaining, every one of them was created by a business whose business is NOT making pretty Christmas videos. And yet, their customers not only look forward to these videos each holiday season, but also expect them.

Each is carefully crafted to share a message–not only the overt message you see in the video, but also the message that these companies care about what is important to their customers and to the culture of the areas in which they do business. Their plan is that you’ll watch these videos and think of these companies as someone with whom you would choose to do business because they care about you and share your values. And don’t we all want to associate with people who care about us and share our values?

Make no mistake. These are not just sweet little video Christmas cards. Every one of them has gone viral. The one with the smallest number of views was Apple’s Frankenstein video with 93,000. Who of us wouldn’t mind having 93,000 see and share our posts? Most of the others are in the millions (the Irish commercials fall just shy of that–but Ireland’s a small country). The most watched commercial, the one from Germany, has more than 60 million views. When you watch it, you’ll understand why. News stories from the year it was released report that many people changed their Christmas plans after seeing the video.

As business owners, marketers, and communicators, we would do well to study these videos and learn how to improve our own messaging.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. 

As people, we should also enjoy these videos and be entertained, uplifted and moved by them.

Feel free to share–and to share your favorites with me!

And Now for the 12 Best Christmas Ads


This 2018 ad featuring Elton John from John Lewis & Partners is the one that got me going this year. We may not always know the life-changing power of giving a gift–and that’s what this video is about.

While Guinness might be the one notable exception to my love of all things Irish, this Christmas ad from 2011 is just beautiful. And now I’m ready to board the plane and head to the Emerald Isle for a white Christmas.

These bears from Heathrow are just stinkin’ cute. Makes me wish I had some special company home for the holidays.

Sainsbury’s 2016 ad reminds us of the best gift we can give. . .

More cute bears. This time Paddington steps up to help Santa.

This German commercial may require a #tissuealert. Christmas is a time to come home.

I don’t drink Coke, but I’ll never tire of this throwback to my childhood.

One more bit of holiday sweetness and light from the land of my heritage. Dunnes Stores in Ireland.

Christmas is all about loving and giving and reminding us to care for one another. John Lewis captures it well in this cute story of Lily and the man on the moon.

This IRN-BRU ad from Scotland is definitely not your typical Christmas message–but it’s beautifully done and made me laugh out loud, and I hear it’s a classic in Scotland.

2018 is the 100th anniversary of the ending of World War I. And this true story from WWI, courtesy of Sainsbury’s never ceases to get me.

And in case you wanted to know more–here’s the story behind the ad.

Merry Christmas!

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