The John Lewis Christmas ad is a highly anticipated staple of the festive season, joining the likes of Coca Cola, Cornflakes, and of course, Guinness, and this year’s offering is no different.
The ad is the latest in a long line of gorgeous Christmas commercials for the brand, many of which have become favourites of all time.
To celebrate the release of the latest addition to the festive collection, here is a rundown of the John Lewis Christmas ads and their soundtracks since the first one screened in 2007.
The first John Lewis Christmas ad shows a group of people stacking a pile of gifts including a desktop lamp, a computer and a leather satchel in an empty room.
The finished product ends up creating a shadow that looks like a woman walking her dog through the snow, accompanied by the tagline: ‘Whoever you’re looking for this Christmas.’
Culminating in the tagline: ‘If you know the person, you’ll find the present,’ it shows a succession of characters followed by a matching gift.
The soundtrack is a cover of The Beatles’ From Me To You recorded for the campaign, with vocals by Matt Spinner, a member of the John Lewis IT department, and its music society.
This was the first of the John Lewis Christmas ads that were created by advertising agency Adam & Eve, now adam&eveDDB, and the first to feature a musical cover by a current artist, on this occasion a Taken By Trees version of Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns N’ Roses.
The ad shows children opening gifts for adults including a laptop, coffee machine and handbag, followed by the tagline: ‘Remember how Christmas used to feel? Give someone that feeling.’
Ellie Goulding’s cover of Sir Elton John’s Your Song was the soundtrack to this ad, which showed parents sneaking a rocking horse upstairs while their children watched television, a man struggling to wrap a pair of candlesticks, a mechanic attempting to wrap a teapot at work and a young boy hanging a stocking on his dog’s kennel.
Set to Slow Moving Millie’s cover of Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want by The Smiths, the 2011 John Lewis Christmas ad shows a young boy impatiently counting down to Christmas, only to show that his real motivation was to give presents to his parents.
A snowman traverses mountains and motorways to get to a shop to buy his snow girlfriend a scarf to keep her warm.
The soundtrack is Gabrielle Aplin’s cover of The Power Of Love by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and the tagline is: ‘Give a little more love this Christmas.’
Lily Allen’s cover of Keane’s Somewhere Only We Know accompanies an animated tale that opens with the line: ‘There was once an animal who had never seen Christmas.’
It goes on to show the friendship between a bear and a hare until the bear departs to hibernate when snow starts to fall.
The hare thinks of the perfect Christmas present for the bear, an alarm clock to allow him to wake up and experience Christmas.
Monty, who hopes for love at Christmas time, is the imaginary character created by a boy whose favourite toy is a stuffed penguin. A female penguin toy happily arrives under the tree for Monty on Christmas Day.
The ad also features a Tom Odell cover of John Lennon’s Real Love and became a firm favourite of the John Lewis Christmas ad family.
The biggest tearjerker of them all, and our personal favourite, shows a young girl who spots a lonely old man on the moon and decides to send him a telescope to give him a connection to Earth.
The partnership with Age UK had the tagline: ‘Show someone they’re loved this Christmas,’ and Norwegian artist Aurora provided the soundtrack with a cover of Half The World Away by Oasis.
The story of Buster, who makes a break for the new Christmas trampoline after having to suffer watching foxes, a badger, squirrels and a hedgehog trying it out first, was accompanied by a cover of Randy Crawford’s One Day I’ll Fly Away by electronic trio Vaults.
A friendship develops between seven-year-old Joe and his imaginary monster under the bed, Moz, based on a mutual love of late-night Scalextric and piggyback games.
Moz eventually realises that their late nights must end when he sees the toll they are taking on Joe. Joe wakes on Christmas morning to find a clumsily wrapped present of a night light under the tree.
The John Lewis Christmas ad took its first celebrity turn by making Sir Elton John the star of this ad, with his performance of Your Song the soundtrack to a festive-tinged retrospective of his life and career.
The ad opens with the superstar tapping out the opening notes to Your Song, his first major hit, and ends with the four-year-old Elton running down the stairs on Christmas morning and unwrapping his grandmother’s gift of her piano.
An exuberant young dragon called Edgar almost derails festivities in a medieval village with his fire-breathing excitement, accidentally melting the ice rink, reducing a snowman to a puddle and setting fire to a Christmas tree as his anxious friend Ava looks on.
The advert, the first in partnership with Waitrose, was set to a recording of REO Speedwagon’s Can’t Fight This Feeling by Dan Smith from the band Bastille and was filmed over two weeks in Budapest with a live extras cast of around 100 people.
This John Lewis Christmas ad focused on acts of kindness during the coronavirus pandemic and featured a new song written and performed by singer Celeste.
The stripped-back advert was a departure from the blockbuster clips of previous years and consisted of a series of short stories, all depicting random acts of kindness and released to mark National Kindness Day.
Space traveller Skye crash lands at the height of festivities in the woods near the home of 14-year-old Nathan, who introduces her to the traditions of eating mince pies, decorating the tree and, to her slight confusion, wearing novelty jumpers.
The soundtrack was provided by 20-year-old London singer and songwriter Lola Young, who performs a cover of Together In Electric Dreams, originally released by Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder in 1984.
A middle-aged man struggles painfully to master skateboarding in the build-up to Christmas in preparation for the arrival of a young teenager his family is taking into foster care.
Set to a cover of Blink-182’s All The Small Things by US artist Mike Geier, John Lewis used the Christmas Ad to raise awareness of children with experience of the care system and it really tugs at the heart strings.
This John Lewis Christmas ad stars Snapper the mischievous Venus flytrap, who emerges from a grow-your-own Christmas tree seed box.
The tagline is: ‘Let your traditions grow’ and features an original song called ‘Festa’ – which means celebration – composed for the campaign by Italian electro-pop duo Le Feste Antonacci and performed by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.
Last year’s addition to the Christmas ad collection followed a woman frantically buying a last-minute gift for her sister, with our heroine Sally running into the retailer’s Oxford Street flagship store 15 minutes before closing.
Falling through a rack of dresses, she steps into the attic of her childhood home, and begins a journey through her memories of growing up with her sister as she searches for a thoughtful present.
This marked the first time a John Lewis shop had actually featured in its Christmas ad, and also the first time they didn’t use a cover-version of another song, with Richard Ashcroft, the former Verve frontman, performing his song Sonnet for it.
In another first for the company, this year’s ad focuses on the relationship between a father and son, tapping into a nostalgic bonding session over a 90s vinyl.
A surly teen is giving his father his Christmas gift, which is a vinyl of his favourite track from his youth in an effort to connect with his dad.
In a return to tradition, the soundtrack to this year’s ad is a cover version, with British artist Labrinth performing a new version of Alison Limerick’s club hit, Where Love Lives.
