Holiday ads started earlier than ever in 2025, with many countries seeing them launch during or right after Halloween. As more launch, we’re pulling them all together in the Sunday Strategy ‘Holiday Ad List’. We’ve pulled together 1,000+ from over the years and 150+ from 2025 so far.
Here’s some of the unique, the festive and the favorites – with new ones added as they launch:
ALDI – “Accidental Party”
Part Mannequin Challenge, Part Christmas ad – ALDI’s US ad highlights what can happen when you get deals on groceries, drinks and decorations for the holidays.
Apple – “Your Tree on Battersea”
Apple showcases the creativity of its users by turning their drawings of a Christmas tree into projections on London’s Battersea Power Station. 24 winners will see their drawings projected, starting on the 4th of December.
Barbour – “Wallace & Gromit x Barbour”
Following a previous collaboration with Shaun the Sheep, Barbour have turned to the quintessentially British ‘Wallace and Gromit’ – partnering with Aardman to turn the characters into their 2025 Christmas ad. Featuring Wallace’s inventions and a lot of Barbour tartan, the ad puts the brand forward as part of an authentic “Wallace and Gromit” story.
Brach’s – “Candy Cane Thief”
When Candy Canes are delicious and decorations ‘you can’t eat’ there’s a natural crisis waiting to occur. Brach’s shows the lengths a dad, his kids and even the family dog will go to, to get a hold of these decorations.
Burger King – ‘BK Advent Calendar’
Burger King US has once again launched their BK Advent Calendar, which sold out in less than five minutes last year. The calendars’ 12 drawers are filled with nostalgic surprises including: a JD the Dog Plushie, Inflatable Chair, Cini Mini Candles, Stout King Chia Seed Sprouter, Cookie Cutters & Cookie Tin, Coca Cola® Keychain, Fanny Pack, Two Decorative Ornaments, BK Puzzle Cube, Retro Magnet, and mini Burger King Board Game. While they last, the calendars are selling for $19.54 – a nod to the brand’s founding year.
Cointreau – ‘Make Your Eggnog a Margarita’
Egg-nog is nasty, admit it. Instead, Cointreau and Aubrey Plaza have a new recipe that seems strangely like a Margarita.
EE – ‘The Christmas Double’
Telecoms brand EE champions connection in their Christmas ad, tapping into research that shows the reality of families juggling multiple Christmases in one day. The ad, soundtracked by 1989 House hit ‘Ride on Time’ by Black Box’ shows the reality of trying to ‘do the Christmas double’ and celebrate with two sides of the family on the day.
Etsy – “Little Drummer Boy”
Etsy’s 2025 holiday ad takes its ‘Gifts That Say I Get You Idea’ and translates it into even more personal terms. “Little Drummer Boy” sees Alex, a child with a habit of drumming on anything, often to the detriment of himself and those around him, get gifted a set of drum sticks which open up a musical future. Moving more individually vs. last year’s “Where’s Waldo” ad, the brand takes a measured tone in the ad that resonates in specific meaningful moments.
GAP – “Give Your Gift”
Gap continues their music vibes based marketing strategy with a holiday ad featuring Sienna Spiro and a choir performing “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus while wearing a selection of the brand’s winter wear.
Home Instead – “Home But Not Alone”
Coinciding with the 35th anniversary of “Home Alone”, in-home care company “Home Instead” taps Macaulay Culkin to reprise his role as Kevin McAlister. This time, he’s trying to keep his Mom safe at home, sparking a conversation about caring for your parents while referencing the classic’s ‘Old Man Marley” through his grand daughter.
Hoosier Lottery – ‘A Gift From Rube’
The Indiana Lottery takes a page from the classic Honda ‘Cog’ ad to create a Christmas Rube Goldberg machine.
IKEA – ‘Twelve Days’
IKEA Canada takes on the weirdness of the Twelve Days of Christmas, highlighting, similar to a 2019 ‘Anomaly’ Agency Christmas Card, that most of those gifts aren’t really going to work out well.
JCPenney – “It’s What They Thought That Counts”
JCPenney brings their deal focused brand platform to the holidays, with an ad that shows how much someone thinks a gift costs is way more important that what it actually costs.
JD Sports – “Where Are You Going”
From 2023’s ‘Bag For Life’, showing holiday life around their bag, to 2024’s ‘Family Portrait’, giving a polished but realistic view of what family means – JD Sports have committed to strategically focusing on the real lives of young people against a holiday season of big budget ads and fantasy. The logical progression of that strategy continues this year, as they’ve given phones to 286 different young individuals around the world and used the footage captured as their 2025 ad.
The result isn’t just a portrait of what young life looks like at the moment or a lo-fi contrast vs. market’s holiday celebration. It’s also a reminder that simply saying you focus on your audience isn’t enough, you have to continuously find new ways to get closer and renew that commitment.
John Lewis – “Where Love Lives”
Saatchi & Saatchi continues the unenviably enviable task of bringing the UK’s most famous annual ad to life – in a way that meets expectations but also puts a unique stamp on it for the brand as culture changes. The 2025 entry ‘Where Love Lives’ shifts from mascots, aliens, bears and cute dragons to focus on a human story between a father and son. Tapping heavily into the 90s nostalgia rife in advertising at the moment, it sees the son, who’s drifted apart from his father, give him a vinyl record of the 90s house classic ‘Where Love Lives’. The gift transports him back to a 90s nightclub and reconciles the gap between them in the present day.
Featuring a slower version of the track by Labrinth, the ad holds up the brand’s tradition of remaking the music featured from standards. However, its departure from ‘entertaining tear jerker’ to ‘personal tear jerker’ is a new adaptation. Whereas previous entries aimed to make a wide swath of the UK public feel a little something (with penguins, bears / hares and more), this entry and last year’s ‘Gifting Hour’ show a more focused emotional approach, aiming to make those the ad resonates with feel a deeper response at the cost of wider relevance.
Lego – “If Its Play You’re Looking For’
LEGO’s Holiday Choir features everyone from Darth Vader and Hulk to Luffy and Elphaba. The IP laden ad entices kids to come play with toys for the holidays through a repurposed Lionel Ritchie classic.
LIDL GB – “More to Value This Christmas”
LIDL taps into the economic worry of this year’s season by talking about the true value of the season – being together, sharing joy and having a meal. The ad extends the sharing joy idea through to an associated toy drive.
Meals on Wheels – “End the Wait’“
Meals on Wheels America asks people to understand the impossible feeling of waiting during the holiday season – to highlight the wait seniors experience for meals and connection. While it jars against the moment of the season, that dissonance tries to drive donation.
Morrisons – “A Year in the Making”
Just like marketers who make Christmas ads, Morrisons believes that Christmas requires much longer preparation than just in December. Unknowingly tapping into the sense of Christmas Creep we’re seeing this year, the ad highlights the different suppliers and partners who are so excited about Christmas, they’re singing about it in June.
National Lottery – ‘Merry Scratchmas’
Tom Daley loves knitwear – something Malibu has already tapped into during much warmer weather. The UK National Lottery continues this with the ‘Scratchcard-igan’ a limited edition product you can actually win. No word if you have to wear it.
Ocean Spray – ‘Just Add Cran. Beware of Cranpus’
Ocean Spray’s biggest holiday campaign introduces Cranpus, a mischievous character played by Bryan Cranston. A 60‑second film shows Cranpus sneaking cranberries into holiday dishes and gate‑crashing Christmas scenes to showcase the versatility of cranberries and the brand’s product range. Cranston is a playful anti‑Santa that brings star power and humor, reminding consumers that cranberry products can be for more than Thanksgiving by showing up early in the cultural calendar.
San Pellegrino – “Holiday On Italian Time”
Beverage brand San Pellegrino has enlisted Diane Morgan (unofficially playing her “Philomena Crunk” character) to explain the Italian approach to Christmas. From long meals to greetings, Morgan dryly explains all you need to know about doing the holidays the Italian way.
Suchard – “Son Todas Navidades”
Chocolate brand Suchard uses stop motion to reiterate its heritage as a Spanish holiday presence. The ad ‘It’s All Christmas’ shows different ways people across Spain celebrate the holidays, soundtracked by Mafalda Cardenal.
Smyths Toy Superstores – “The Scent of Christmas Magic”
UK toy retailer Smyths takes a unique approach to highlighting their range of toys, in an ad featuring a boy trying to uncover what toys are wrapped under the tree. Enlisting his dog to sniff the gift and then a range of toys, as well as the catalog – he finally goes in store to be led to the gift.
Shelter – “Christmas Appeal”
UK housing charity ‘Shelter’ has continued their annual approach of raising awareness of homelessness during the holidays through the eyes of children. 2025’s Appeal features Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ used first as a child’s joyous song and secondly as hold music while his mother waits to try and coordinate housing. The ad’s rugpull approach mirrors 2024’s ‘World of Our Own’ and 2023’s ‘Good as Gold’, in luring viewers in through more expected child focused holiday narratives, before shifting to the hard hitting issue of homelessness.
T-Mobile DE – “The Message”
Deutsche Telekom takes a heavier approach to talking about holiday connection, in an ad that focuses on the messages we haven’t sent – which grow heavier over time. Focusing on the story of a mother and daughter, it highlights that all it takes is one message to lift that weight sometimes.
Telstra – ‘Girl & Ghost’
Australian telecoms brand Telstra taps into the Halloween incursion of Christmas in an ad featuring a Goth daughter trying to fit in during Christmas – and befriending a ghost.
Tesco – “Thats What Makes It Christmas”
Tesco has launched a Christmas campaign featuring ten different ads – all spanning different realistic Christmas moments. From annoying Christmas cards and family fights to not touching Christmas food and Regressing to your childhood self. While it wallows in some of the more annoying moments of the holidays, it does so to prove that these moments are what makes an imperfect holiday – perfect.
TK Maxx – “Festive Farm”
TK Maxx combines 90s Hip Hop, designer fashion and British farmlife to show what happens when everyone can get fashion for less. From a Hedgehog in a hat to a Llama in a roll-neck, the ad shows off clothes on unlikely models – soundtracked to “Let Me Blow Ya Mind” by Eve.
Waitrose – “The Perfect Gift”
British grocer Waitrose combines a widower, his cheat list and Kiera Knightley in an unlikely rom-com. When his partner passes, Phil, played by Joe Wilkinson laments that the only person he was allowed to get off with was Kiera Knightley before meeting her in a Waitrose cheese aisle during the holidays. A surprising love affair ensues and after a hiccup causes Phil to cook for her, he wins her heart in a ‘Love Actually’ remake we didn’t know we needed.
