Last year, I took a look at some of the most common Christmas ad clichés, with examples to boot. This year, I’ve created an overall rating system for some of the key elements that go into most Christmas ads. I did something a little similar back in 2018, and I categorised 5 types of Christmas ad in 2019, but now I’ve combined and refined to create the ultimate Christmas ad ranking system. Let’s dive into some of the top Christmas ads of 2023, including many of the brands that helped to turn Christmas adverts into an annual tradition.

Aldi

Kevin the Carrot is once again the star of Aldi’s Christmas ad, this time in a festive adventure inspired by Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Instead of greedy children gobbling candy, we’re treated to fruits and veggies exploring a massive Christmas dinner.

It’s cute enough, and ends with the message that ‘Christmas is a time that’s sweeter when you share’, but it’s not particularly memorable. Personally, I think it might be time for Aldi to demote Kevin the Carrot to from Christmas ad to Christmas dinner.

Seasonal Score

Cuteness Factor: 3/5
Fuzziness of Feelings: 2/5
Heartstring Tug Strength: 1/5
Singalongability: 0/5
Level of Over-The-Topness: 3/5
Merchandising Opportunities: 5/5
Remembering What It’s Really About: 3/5
Memorability: 1/5

TOTAL SCORE: 18/40

Amazon

Amazon, the website that has literally everything but workers’ rights, always has a bit of a tough job on its hands at Christmas. This year’s offering focuses on three older ladies, and the beauty of lifelong friendships.

Accompanied by a plinky piano version of ‘In My Life’ by The Beatles, the overall message is that what we buy each other doesn’t really matter; it’s the memories we create together that make moments special.

Seasonal Score

Cuteness Factor: 2/5
Fuzziness of Feelings: 3/5
Heartstring Tug Strength: 3/5
Singalongability: 1/5
Level of Over-The-Topness: 1/5
Merchandising Opportunities: 0/5
Remembering What It’s Really About: 3/5
Memorability: 2/5

TOTAL SCORE: 15/40

Asda

Asda’s 2023 Christmas ad features famously festive crooner Michael Bublé as the brand’s Chief Quality Officer. Essentially, his role seems to be chowing down on Asda’s Christmas food range, casting his eye over a few sparkly outfits, and being generally very positive (if not a little wooden) about everything.

What blows my mind is how little singing there is. In a 90-second spot featuring Micheal Bublé in its starring role, there’s only about 9 seconds of him singing. And most of that is a single note. It feels shoehorned in, like whoever put the ad together had no idea that Mickey Bubs was a singer and had to scrabble to find space for a song.

Seasonal Score

Cuteness Factor: 1/5
Fuzziness of Feelings: 1/5
Heartstring Tug Strength: 0/5
Singalongability: 1/5
Level of Over-The-Topness: 3/5
Merchandising Opportunities: 0/5
Remembering What It’s Really About: 2/5
Memorability: 1/5

TOTAL SCORE: 9/40

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is up there with Christmas ad royalty, so it’s no surprise that this year’s advert from the global beverage giant is a warm and fuzzy hit. The majority of the ad focuses on Santas doing solids for other Santas. Helping to hail a taxis, spotting each other at the gym, giving away the last bottle of Coke… it’s all about the little things,

We then see real people in place of the Santas, helping to portray the message that ‘Anyone can be Santa’ and showing that human kindness goes a long way at Christmas. It’s quite a charming little ad. It’s not brash or in your face; it’s not beating you over the head with merchandise; it’s not shamelessly trying to solicit tears; it’s just a nice message wrapped in a festive bow.

Seasonal Score

Cuteness Factor: 2/5
Fuzziness of Feelings: 4/5
Heartstring Tug Strength: 3/5
Singalongability: 3/5
Level of Over-The-Topness: 2/5
Merchandising Opportunities: 2/5
Remembering What It’s Really About: 5/5
Memorability: 3/5

TOTAL SCORE: 24/40

John Lewis

I’ve been a bit let down by John Lewis over the last few years but I was pleasantly surprised with this year’s ad featuring Snapper, a sentient venus fly trap. It’s not a plant that’s traditionally associated with Christmas, but that’s kind of the point, as it’s been grown by the family’s youngest child to serve as the perfect Christmas tree.

The John Lewis team has managed to turn a venus fly trap being put outside in the garden into a surprisingly heartbreaking moment. Snapper is eventually accepted as the family’s new Christmas tree, and proceeds to eat all of the presents. Which I genuinely found quite funny. Of course, he spits out the actual presents, and some festive wrapping paper confetti, and we end with a message about letting your traditions grow.

Seasonal Score

Cuteness Factor: 2/5
Fuzziness of Feelings: 3/5
Heartstring Tug Strength: 3/5
Singalongability: 2/5
Level of Over-The-Topness: 4/5
Merchandising Opportunities: 5/5
Remembering What It’s Really About: 3/5
Memorability: 4/5

TOTAL SCORE: 26/40

Lidl

I thought this ad was pretty cute, and I’m a sucker for animals and cuddly toys. That said, the narrative is kind of bonkers, and took me a couple of watches to figure out. It goes something like this: Dog accidentally breaks monkey Christmas ornament. Small child is sad. Mum buys cute monkey toy to cheer up child. Mum accidentally drops monkey in street. Racoon finds monkey and goes on epic adventure to bring monkey home. Dog chases racoon out of house. Small child finds monkey. Dog rewards racoon with a bindle of Christmas dinner.

Of course, you can buy your very own Rodney Raccoon, which presents a sort of confusing message when combined with the ad’s final call to gift a toy to Lidl’s toy bank. By the way, the featured monkey toy is the Playtive Trumping Monkey, which “moves and laughs about its trumps”. Batteries (and trumps) included.

Seasonal Score

Cuteness Factor: 5/5
Fuzziness of Feelings: 4/5
Heartstring Tug Strength: 3/5
Singalongability: 3/5
Level of Over-The-Topness: 2/5
Merchandising Opportunities: 4/5
Remembering What It’s Really About: 2/
Memorability: 3/5

TOTAL SCORE: 26/40

M&S (Clothing & Home)

Featuring a star-studded cast, the M&S Christmas ad for the clothing and home arm of M&S is full of glitz, glamour, and people doing whatever the heck they want. From chucking a board game into the fish tank to setting fire to the Christmas cards, it’s a cheeky nod to just being so over the things that are expected of us during the festive season. The message at the end of the advert: “This Christmas, do only what you love.”

Personally, I think it’s a great message. People get so wrapped up in the traditions and the ‘have tos’ of Christmas and forget that it’s supposed to be a time of merriment and being together. However, there has been significant backlash  about this ad for a number of reasons, the main one being (in my opinion) a complete lack of a sense of humour or any level of perspective on the obligations of (let’s face it) mothers at Christmas.

Seasonal Score

Cuteness Factor: 1/5
Fuzziness of Feelings: 1/5
Heartstring Tug Strength: 2/5
Singalongability: 4/5
Level of Over-The-Topness: 5/5
Merchandising Opportunities: 0/5
Remembering What It’s Really About: 3/5
Memorability: 4/5

TOTAL SCORE: 20/40

McDonald’s

We’ve all been there. The awkward office Christmas party. The cringeworthy kids’ nativity. The frustratingly consistent failure of the British transport network. Why not just sack it all off and get a McDonald’s? This ad is fun and festive, and while I’m not sure why it’s soundtracked by Van Halen, it’s a catchy choice.

What I’m struggling with is why this advert didn’t meet the same vitriol as the M&S ad, considering the message is practically identical. Maybe people don’t expect much from Maccy D’s but place M&S on a higher pedestal? Or maybe the M&S clientele are just more uptight. Who knows.

Seasonal Score

Cuteness Factor: 2/5
Fuzziness of Feelings: 1/5
Heartstring Tug Strength: 1/5
Singalongability: 3/5
Level of Over-The-Topness: 4/5
Merchandising Opportunities: 1/5
Remembering What It’s Really About: 2/5
Memorability: 2/5

TOTAL SCORE: 16/40

Sainsbury’s

One of the OGs for creating incredible Christmas ads, the 2023 release from Sainsbury’s is… disappointing. Which is all the more impressive considering they’ve got Rick Astley on the cast list.

In the ad, Sainsbury’s staff are debating what Santa has for Christmas dinner. Naturally, all of the suggestions are items you can purchase from Sainsbury’s. At one point, Rick Astley appears and suggests cheese, and it’s pointed out (through a very forced ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ reference) that cheese before pudding is completely unacceptable. For some inexplicable reason, this is all set to the theme tune from Ski Sunday.

Seasonal Score

Cuteness Factor: 1/5
Fuzziness of Feelings: 1/5
Heartstring Tug Strength: 2/5
Singalongability: 1/5
Level of Over-The-Topness: 1/5
Merchandising Opportunities: 0/5
Remembering What It’s Really About: 1/5
Memorability: 2/5

TOTAL SCORE: 9/40

Tesco

One of the weirder adverts this year, Tesco demonstrates a very literal approach to getting into the Christmas spirit. As festive fever starts to take hold, people start turning into Christmas trees, snowmen, reindeer, Christmas puddings, and all manner of yuletide shapes.

The ad centres on a grumpy teen who is most certainly not feeling the festivities and is, understandably, quite embarrassed when his father turns into a walking Christmas tree. Of course, as is the way with these ads, an emotional reminder of Christmasses past sparks joy in the teen’s heart. Before you know it, he turns into a tree topped by the crude paper star that he made as a child. It’s equal parts heartwarming and dumb, and very original.

Seasonal Score

Cuteness Factor: 2/5
Fuzziness of Feelings: 3/5
Heartstring Tug Strength: 3/5
Singalongability: 4/5
Level of Over-The-Topness: 5/5
Merchandising Opportunities: 1/5
Remembering What It’s Really About: 4/5
Memorability: 4/5

TOTAL SCORE: 26/40

Waitrose

This advert feels very un-Waitrose to me. Rather than being decadent and aspirations, it’s all a little bit kitsch and clumsy – although, as a huge Depeche Mode fan, it gets my vote for the soundtrack of the season. The concept of Christmas going a bit wrong with the guests turning up early and the power going out is fine, but it just doesn’t really pay off at any point. It either needed to be funnier or played completely straight.

Graham Norton appears for some reason, which is weird, and had me rewatching the video to see if I’d missed any other celebrity cameos, then googling to see whether I just didn’t recognise the other celebrities. Nope. It’s just Graham. And (much like Rick Astley) it feels like a total waste of a great cameo opportunity.

Seasonal Score

Cuteness Factor: 0/5
Fuzziness of Feelings: 1/5
Heartstring Tug Strength: 0/5
Singalongability: 5/5
Level of Over-The-Topness: 3/5
Merchandising Opportunities: 0/5
Remembering What It’s Really About: 1/5
Memorability: 2/5

TOTAL SCORE: 12/40

Let’s wrap up

It’s a bit of a mixed bag this year, with some ads failing to hit the mark, some being unnecessarily slammed, and some creating a warm, festive feeling that has you reaching for the mince pies. In all honesty, I don’t think it’s a particularly strong crop, and I can’t in all honesty say I’ll remember any of them this time next year.

In an increasingly cynical world, where corporate greed and consumerism aren’t exactly seen in a favourable light, it might be time for advertisers to consider packing up the Christmas ad  and locking it away in the loft with the tree and the decorations. Let’s be honest, there must be a better use for all the millions spent on these adverts – particularly when the aim is to get people to spend even more money.

At the risk of sounding unfestive, if these are the best ads that the best brands can create with the best marketing agencies at their disposal, it might be worth sending all that money straight to charity instead.