The eager anticipation for this year’s Christmas adverts started pretty much after Christmas ended last year, when John Lewis and Sainsbury’s captured our hearts with their moving festive adverts. Now that the ads are out and being played repeatedly, we take a look at our favourites.

John Lewis – #ManOnTheMoon

After last year, John Lewis had a lot to live up to and we think they have risen to the occasion with their Man on the Moon advert, which raises the issue of loneliness in older people over the festive period with Age UK. The advert tells the story of a young girl called Lily who sees a man on the moon when looking through the family telescope one night. At last look, the advert had a staggering 20,000,000 hits on YouTube and rising!

Aldi – Telescope Christmas

Our personal favourite Christmas advert this year has to be Aldi, which mimics the John Lewis advert. Aldi’s version does a price comparison of the man on the moon’s telescope against the astronomical cheapness of Aldi’s own telescope. This advert had almost 2,000,000 views at last watch.

Sainsburys – Mog’s Christmas Calamity

Sainsbury’s Mog’s calamity Christmas advert is voiced by the brilliant Emma Thompson and is an adaptation of Judith Kerr’s children’s books about Mog. The ad tells the story of clumsy cat, Mog, who destroys the house of his family on Christmas Day only to be rewarded by his family and his community! All proceeds from the book which is sold exclusively in Sainsbury’s, will go to Save the Children’s efforts to improve child literacy. The advert has over 18,500,000 views!

Paypal – No Presents

Paypal’s controversial Christmas advert this year, which has been accused of ruining Christmas, has had over half a million YouTube views. The advert shows two little boys noticing their parents hadn’t gone out Christmas shopping (when do they ever? Presents are Santa’s job!) Paypal, however, credit their app as the reason mum and dad stay home. We prefer to still believe in Santa.

Red Letter Days – Barbie

Here at RLD we have had some Christmas adverts of our own including this one and I want a toy. Our Barbie advert was made as part of the Red Letter Days ‘All I Want For Christmas’ campaign. The little boy gets a Barbie despite not asking for one for Christmas and the mum suggests that maybe he has not been entirely good during the year.