Halloween has scarcely disappeared into the rear view mirror before the starting gun is fired on the great British festive season. Retailers dust off the tinsel, supermarkets wheel out the selection boxes and we're all gently reminded, or perhaps battered about the head, that Christmas is coming, whether we're ready or not.
One of the annual signposts of the season is, of course, the John Lewis Christmas advert. It has become something of a cultural institution over the past decade or so and, like all great ideas, has spawned a lot of imitators. Social media dissects every frame of these carefully curated short films and for a few days in November everyone has an opinion - so here is mine!
I confess I have something of a soft spot for John Lewis. During my time at Baillie Gifford our office sat conveniently close to the Edinburgh store. Perhaps too convenient. The relationship felt almost symbiotic. Handy for investment staff looking for gifts or somewhere to walk on a soggy lunchbreak, and equally handy for John Lewis whenever bonus season rolled around. If the special displays of handbags and luxury treats were anything to go by, they knew exactly what they were doing. So I sat down this morning to watch this year's offering to see what it says about where we are today in the UK.
If you haven't seen it yet, you can see it here:
Gloria and Pickles | John Lewis & Partners | Christmas Ad 2026
As ever, many of the ingredients are present and correct. There's a classic Rolling Stones song reimagined, some familiar faces, a visually beautiful setting (the sort of London Paddington lives in) and plenty of festive atmosphere. Dame Kristin Scott Thomas is an excellent actress and looks fabulous, Paul Whitehouse (surely a contender for our finest living comic actor) provides a charming voice performance and there is much to admire in the production.
Despite all of that, when it finished, I felt strangely, well, cold. The advert centres on Gloria, a grandmother excitedly and nervously preparing for a family Christmas visit. Her grandchildren arrive, chaos ensues and she eventually wins them over through a magical adventure and an impressive room full of decorations and festive treats.
Perhaps I'm showing my age, but what stayed with me wasn't the shopping or the talking toy dog. It was the assumption underlying the story. The children seem largely uninterested in their grandmother's efforts and, if I'm honest, come across as entitled and rude (you don’t mess with someone’s vinyl and moleskine notebooks…) The parents appear exhausted and resigned (or feckless if I am being harsh). Christmas cheer eventually arrives not through conversations or simply spending time together, but through buying more things. Now, before anyone accuses me of becoming a grumpy old man, I understand that this is a retailer's advert. Selling things is, after all, the entire point, but I couldn't help feeling that they missed an opportunity to say something more optimistic about Britain today.
Christmas time has always been about so much more than consumption. Some of my happiest festive memories involve simple things - games of Trivial Pursuit and Pictionary, watching telly in front of the seldom used coal fire (special occasion, you see), conversations between generations, hilarious moments such as Auntie Nettie eating a chunk of lemon whole in her prawn cocktail, old traditions and so on that really cost absolutely nothing.
Do not get me wrong - I am not sitting on a morally perfect life of piety. I still recall with startling clarity and a rush of excitement getting my Nintendo Entertainment System when I was 10, a Doctor Who VHS every year (“Genesis of the Daleks AND The Sontaran Experiment - thanks mum and dad!”), ‘Parklife’ on a cassette tape, the complete Blackadder VHS and then, holy of holies, a PS1 with Tomb Raider 30 years ago. Titanic moments in my life!
What jarred with me was the suggestion that when children are bored, relationships are strained or family gatherings feel awkward, the answer is simply to buy more stuff or get cash from granny.
Surely there are other messages available that canny retailers can put across, such as buy quality rather than quantity, value people over possessions and remember that grandparents are so precious, not just cash rich providers of gifts which will soon be forgotten.
Och, maybe I'm being unfair. Maybe I'm overthinking what is, at the end of the day, a three minute Christmas advert designed to sell baubles, fairy lights and a toy dog. Marketing people are clever and canny (hello Emily and Lara McGowan) and I suspect they may even welcome a bit of debate/moral outrage like this. After all, I probably wouldn't be talking about the advert if it hadn't irritated me. Above all, I really like John Lewis, I love the bricks and mortar stores and know how hard it is - I want them to succeed. But I suppose, and here’s the handbrake turn in this blog, I noticed this advert so keenly this year because, in a vastly smaller way, I'm in the business of selling things too. What I'm offering is tours, insight, connection or simply put shared experiences like my walking tours. So if you're looking for a gift with a difference this year, perhaps consider grabbing a ticket for you, a pal or a grandparent with a killer vinyl collection who might enjoy something different. I can't promise the glamour of Dame Kristin Scott Thomas, but I can promise a warm welcome, a good story and a lovely day exploring some of the finest corners of the Borders and beyond.
Merry Christmas, when it comes. x
