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From Coca-Cola receiving backlash for another AI Christmas ad to ALDI giving Kevin the Carrot the happy ending he deserves, we’re taking a look at the best (and the worst) Christmas ads of 2025.
December is almost upon, and we’re back with another look at the best (and worst) Christmas commercials of 2025. This isn’t a ranked list or a formal judging (we’ll leave that to you), this is just observations about which Christmas ads you should check out in 2025.
Some are repeating last year’s mistakes, others have found all new mistakes to make, but luckily for all of us, most of the Christmas advertisements are just the sprinkle of Christmas spirit we need.
This year we’re taking a look at Christmas commercials from Boots, Burberry, LEGO, Lidl, Coca-Cola, Sainsbury’s, Sephora and ALDI. From tear jerking messages to reminders that the holidays are best experienced together.
Last year Boots was behind one of the most discussed Christmas ads, which featured a non-binary elf, a lazy, sleeping Santa, and Adjoa Andoh as a feminist Mrs Claus in charge of everything. Safe to say, the 2024 Christmas ad saw a fair amount of backlash as a result.
This year, Boots has traded in any edge and political commentary from last year, for a tired pun.
However, the high quality of the animation and cute style choices like nicknaming beloved fairy tale characters (Snowy, Rapunz, Cinders, and Madge) has gone over well with a larger audience, and many users comment that this year’s Christmas advert is much better than last year.
The Christmas advert comes to a climax as the cast (and the animated cat) breaks out in dance to Duran Duran’s “Girls On Film”.
Burberry’s 2025 Christmas advert, titled “Twas the Knight Before…”, stars Jennifer Saunders as the host of a celebrity holiday gathering in a luxurious London townhouse.
The Burberry Christmas commercial switches between staged, high definition shots, and candid, grainy hand held photography, as Saunders is joined by the likes of former super model, Naomi Campbel, Actor (and the fifteenth doctor), Ncuti Gatwa, actor and model, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and former Premier League footballer Son Heung-min.
Unlike many others on this list, Burberry’s Christmas commercial focuses less on the narrative, and more on the luxury aesthetic. The result is a Christmas commercial that almost reads like a feature in Vogue.
LEGO’s 2025 Christmas advert approaches the holidays with a humorous rendition of Lionel Richie’s “Hello”.
The short film was created by the Our LEGO Agency, and follows a 12-year old boy who rediscovers the joy of play when, lying on his bed consumed by scrolling his phone, he and his sister’s lego creations spring to life and break out in song.
Everyone from LEGO Darth Vader, LEGO Hulk, LEGO Spiderman, and even LEGO Monkey D Luffi helps carry the young boy from his bed. And soon enough he’s traded in the glare of his phone and the suggested social media scroll for building LEGOs.
Of course the Christmas ad is capped off with the iconic LEGO Batman interrupting everyone’s singing to uttering his catchphrase.
Overall LEGO’s advert is cute without being too cute, it preaches creativity, and the reminder that sometimes we need to put away technology and play is there without becoming too preachy.
While LIDL’s 2024 Christmas ad was sure to tug at your heart strings and bring tears to your eyes, this year it’s not just the creative part of the commercial, but the purpose of the ad itself that will leave many of us a tad misty.
LIDL’s 2025 Christmas ad features a girl explaining the meaning of Christmas, with the Beach Boys’ “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” playing in the background. And while this will all help summon the spirit of Christmas, ending the video by prompting viewers to donate to the LIDL Toy Bank, instead of dunking on competitors or highlighting low prices, really brings the entire message home.
Coca-Cola’s 2024 Christmas ad even ended up on our list of failed AI campaigns, but that hasn’t deterred the soft drink giant.
So, for the second year in a row, Coca-Cola decided to create their Christmas ad using AI. And for the second year in a row Coca-Cola received backlash for creating their Christmas ad using AI.
Within mere hours of the video going live, the comments were filled with critics who voiced dissatisfaction with everything from the quality of the animation, not showing people up close, choices in animals, and the narrative itself.
Many commenters used the opportunity to make jokes. One comment received 7.1K likes stating that this is “The most profitable commercial in Pepsi’s history” and another garnered 1.1K likes saying “I love the fact that Pepsi can do literally nothing and still make a profit on christmas”.
In response to the reactions, Coca-Cola released a statement to CNN saying: “At Coca-Cola, we see AI as a creative partner…But we’re very intentional about where we draw the line. The warmth, humanity, and the feeling people associate with Coca-Cola will always come from people.”
CNN shared a quick breakdown of the controversy on their Instagram, and the comments here weren’t favorable to Coca-Cola’s statements either.
One user commented “My favourite comment on LinkedIn about this advert “nothing says Christmas like people losing their jobs to machines. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year”!!!”
Just like last year, Sainsbury’s brings back Roald Dahl’s beloved BFG to support them in their 2025 Christmas advert, where the big friendly oaf helps Sainsbury’s Annie save citizens’ holiday celebrations from a greedy giant set out to steal their food.
And while the advert itself is kind of cute and rather harmless, it’s not gotten the reception that Sainsbury’s and XYZ Agency was probably hoping for.
In an article by The Grocer, where a panel of judges were asked to rank some of this year’s Christmas adverts, CEO and founder At Hello Finch, Jemima Bird, noted that everything felt forced.
Rob Metcalf, Chairman of Richmond & Towers, stated that Sainsbury’s choice “again enriches the estate of notorious antisemite Roald Dahl, but this BFG outing doesn’t add much to last year’s.” He then goes on to point out that the advert gives no clue as to why anyone should shop at Sainsbury’s this Christmas.
In the same article Katharine Jenner, director for Obesity Health Alliance, notes that while the advert itself does operate within the parameters of the advertisement restrictions on less healthy foods, it also “highlights that those rules are not going to stop children from seeing unhealthy foods”.
The undisputed queen of Christmas has dragged make up brand Sephora into something of a shi… snow storm. We totally meant to write “snow storm”. But unlike last year, when Boots and Adjoa Andoh received backlash for being ‘too woke’ Carey and Sephora have gone in the opposite direction.
The partnership with Sephora sees Carey in an angel costume declare that Halloween “slayed”, but to her dismay, she finds the workshop void of elves.
She arrives just in time to catch an elf, played by Billy Eichner, leaving with a bag full of her make-up. The elf informs her that the elves are on strike after being put through holiday hell, Santa’s helper quit, and the elf in question plans to pawn her make up so he can afford elf-therapy.
The short video ends when the superstar uses the power of her voice to transform the depressed elf into a snowman, before taking off in Santa’s sleigh.
And while the video quickly saw cheers and responses from celebrities and commonfolk alike, many users were quick to point out that the message of the video seemed out of tune.
One comment gathered 2500 likes noting “so the message here is ‘working class on strike for being overworked and underpaid gets turned into snowmen and is forced to work anyway'?”
The backlash focused around Sephora being out of touch with what’s going on in the world, making jokes about “going on strike” and “pawning” in a time of mass layoffs, a US government shutdown, and middle class families struggling to keep up with price hikes.
One commenter even posed a historical comparison noting that the ad itself is giving “let them eat cake”, a phrase often attributed to Marie-Antoinette, who was the last Queen of France before the fall of the French monarchy.
While the accuracy of the story is debated, it is said that she uttered the phrase after hearing that the peasants couldn’t afford bread. It has been used to show how out of touch the French royalty was to the plight of the French people, which is named as one of the reasons behind the revolution.
Other users defend Sephora and Carey, stating that it’s just a tv commercial and not a political message.
Whether you think this is one of the best Christmas ads in 2025, or that the tone is out of touch with the situation of the world, this is definitely one of the Christmas ads you need to watch this year.
2025 sees the return of Kevin the Carrot, and promises to mark his 10th anniversary with a cinematic love story, which will be told across three episodes.
The first episode of ALDI’s 2025 Christmas ad, inspired by a particular scene from the Christmas romcom Love Actually, sees Kevin proposing to Katie.
The second episode follows a hiccup during Kevin’s stag do, and in a parallel to movies like “The Hangover”, the episode released on November 7th poses the question: “Will Kevin make it down the aisle?”
In a press release announcing the second episode Julie Ashfield, the Chief Commercial Officer for Aldi UK, made the following comment about the third episode: “Packed with pure Christmas cheer, a dash of cheekiness, and all the heart our fans have come to expect from Kevin the Carrot, we can’t wait for everyone to stay tuned to see if our beloved groom makes it to the altar!”
ALDI’s 2025 Christmas ad was created by McCann Manchester, the integrated creative, media, PR and social agency also responsible for ALDI’s 2024 Christmas commercial as well as their “Can’t Match This” where the retailer mocked competitors attempting to price match ALDI.
