The Best Holiday Ads Of 2025: 10 Campaigns That Actually Hit

The best holiday ads of 2025 proved that in a year full of AI looking content and recycled tropes, craft and clear ideas still win. From John Lewis and Waitrose to Amazon, Cadbury, Coca Cola, Aldi and Apple, the brands with the best holiday ads in 2025 leaned into emotion, continuity and character rather than trying to out shout each other with effects. Together, the best Christmas ads of 2025 show a pattern: audiences reward stories that feel human, campaigns that build on years of memory and brands that turn festive films into real world experiences.

1. John Lewis – “Where Love Lives”

John Lewis came roaring back into the conversation with “Where Love Lives,” a rave-tinged story about a teenage son gifting his dad a 12 inch of Alison Limerick’s 90s house classic and reconnecting through shared club history. The spot, created by Saatchi & Saatchi, leans on music and small gestures rather than CGI mascots, and is backed by a real vinyl release that sends all profits to the retailer’s Building Happier Futures programme for care-experienced young people, which helped it top many lists of the best holiday ads of 2025. (Creative Salon, DJ Mag)

• Shows how brands with the best holiday ads in 2025 used specific cultural references and charity links to make gifting feel meaningful, not generic.
  
• Proves that the best holiday marketing campaigns can “shop the ad” with merch and donations without losing emotional punch.
  

2. Waitrose – “The Perfect Gift”

Waitrose delivered one of the most talked about best Christmas ads of 2025 with “The Perfect Gift,” a four-minute mini romcom starring Keira Knightley and Joe Wilkinson. The film follows a widower, a meet-cute over Sussex Charmer at the cheese counter, and a love confession spelled in pastry on a No.1 Festive Turkey Pie, shot like a black and white movie and supported by 60 and 30 second “trailers” on TV and social. Critics praised it as a confident, character-led answer to AI looking festive content, and it quickly became one of the best holiday ads of 2025 on YouTube. (Ads of the World, The Guardian)

• Shows how a long-form, human-first story can still earn attention in a year flooded with AI-generated clips and recent campaigns built purely for algorithms.
  
• Underlines that brands with the best holiday ads in 2025 often linked narrative and product tightly, using food as the emotional connector.
  

3. Amazon – “Joy Ride” Returns To The Top

Data firm System1 reported that Amazon’s reprisal of its “Joy Ride” ad, featuring three older women reliving their sledging days to a cover of “In My Life,” was the top-scoring Christmas ad in early testing for 2025, with a 5.9 Star Rating and very strong long-term brand-building potential. The spot is a rerun from a previous year, but its emotional resonance, subtle product role and focus on friendship made it one of the best holiday ads of 2025 and proof that not every winner has to be brand new. (Advanced Television, YouTube)

• Confirms Kantar and System1 findings that half of the top ten best Christmas ads of 2025 are repeats, and that consistency can beat novelty.
  
• Shows how brands with the best holiday ads in 2025 leaned into warmth and memory rather than overcomplicated storytelling.
  

4. Cadbury – “Secret Santa” And The Power Of Repeats

Cadbury’s “Secret Santa,” first launched in 2018, was crowned the most effective Christmas ad of 2025 in Kantar’s consumer testing, sitting in the top percentile of its database for branding impact. The campaign’s simple mechanic of anonymous gifting via purple postboxes has become a ritual, and in 2025 it once again outperformed many glossy new productions, cementing its place among the best holiday marketing campaigns and best Christmas ads of 2025. (Marketing Week, Retail Times)

• Illustrates that brands with the best holiday ads in 2025 often reused strong creative platforms rather than reinventing every year.
  
• Demonstrates that a clear, generous idea can carry a brand across multiple seasons more effectively than changing slogans.
  

5. Coca Cola – “Holidays Are Coming” And The Truck Tour

Coca Cola’s classic “Holidays Are Coming” continues to rank among the best holiday ads of 2025, with Kantar placing it just behind Cadbury in effectiveness and branding power. The 1995 spot’s illuminated red trucks are now supported by a 2025 Holiday Caravan tour across UK and global stops, where fans can see the truck, drink Coke and support FareShare and other charities in person, proving how a decades old ad can fuel some of the best holiday marketing campaigns in a modern setting. (Advanced Television, Coca Cola Holiday Caravan)

• Shows how brands with the best holiday ads in 2025 turned classic creative into live experiences and charity partnerships.
  
• Highlights the value of distinctive festive assets like music, colours and the Coke truck that can be reused indefinitely.
  

6. Aldi – Kevin And Katie’s Carrot Wedding Finale

Aldi UK closed a decade of storytelling with the long awaited wedding of Kevin and Katie the Carrots, in a musical wedding special that doubled as the finale of one of the most successful character devices in Christmas advertising. Created by McCann Manchester, the spot sees the carrot couple navigate last minute hitches on the way to the altar, supported by plush toy releases and spin off content that helped Aldi achieve record attention scores and placed the film among the best Christmas ads of 2025 in System1 and Kantar reports. (LBBOnline, Advanced Television)

• Proves again that character fluent devices can drive some of the best holiday ads of 2025 when they are nurtured over years, not seasons.
  
• Reinforces Aldi’s value and quality message with charm, helping the supermarket stand out among brands with the best holiday ads in 2025.
  

7. Apple – “A Critter Carol” And Practical Magic

Apple’s 2025 holiday ad, “A Critter Carol,” earned widespread praise for using handcrafted puppets and practical effects instead of leaning heavily on CGI or generative imagery. The short film shows a group of woodland creatures discovering an iPhone 17 Pro, recording a performance of “Friends” by Flight of the Conchords, and eventually reuniting the device with its owner, with a behind-the-scenes film revealing that the entire spot was shot on iPhone. In a year when many recent campaigns flirted with AI visuals, critics and fans put “A Critter Carol” among the best holiday ads of 2025 for its tangible, human feel. (The Verge)

• Shows how to beat AI in marketing by investing in craft and tactility rather than synthetic polish.
  
• Reinforces Apple’s product message in a soft way by showing, not telling, what the camera can do.
  

8. McDonald’s – “The Grinch Meal” Holiday Takeover

McDonald’s landed one of the most fun best holiday marketing campaigns of the year by letting Dr Seuss’s The Grinch “take over” the brand for 2025. The campaign pairs a “Grinch Meal” with Dill Pickle McShaker Fries and collectible socks with a TV spot, creator led gaming integrations and a Times Square presence that turns the launch into a full universe. Marketing Dive notes that it builds on the success of previous Grinch promotions and fits into a broader IP takeover strategy that has made McDonald’s one of the brands with the best holiday ads in 2025. (Marketing Dive, LBBOnline)

• Demonstrates how holiday IP can refresh core menu items and create social friendly moments that stand out among recent campaigns.
  
• Shows that playful world building is key when fast food brands compete for the best holiday ads of 2025.
  

9. Heathrow – “It Must Be Love” And The Return Of The Bears

Heathrow brought back its beloved teddy bear couple Doris and Edward Bair for “It Must Be Love,” their first appearance since 2018, and turned Terminal 4 into “Terminal Paw” with new signage and in airport experiences. The new film, created by St Luke’s, follows the bears weaving through festive crowds, security and reunions, capturing the emotional side of holiday travel and landing the ad on several lists of the best Christmas ads of 2025, as well as in System1’s top performers. (Heathrow Media Centre, Creative Moment)

• Reinforces Heathrow’s brand as a place of reunion and emotion, not just a functional transport hub.
  
• Uses returning characters to deliver one of the most charming best holiday marketing campaigns without heavy product messaging.
  

10. Boots – “Gift Happily Ever After” With Puss In Boots

Boots delivered one of the best holiday ads of 2025 by inviting DreamWorks’ Puss in Boots to do his Christmas shopping in a fairy tale campaign titled “Gift Happily Ever After.” The film, led by VML and DOM&NIC, sees Puss hunt for the perfect gifts ahead of the Snow Queen’s Ball, while Boots showcases beauty offers and its signature three for two deal. Marketing Week and Boots itself describe it as the retailer’s “most integrated” festive effort yet, with Puss acting as a character device designed to anchor future campaigns, similar to what Aldi has achieved with Kevin the Carrot. (Boots Newsroom, Marketing Week, LBBOnline)

• Shows how brands with the best holiday ads in 2025 leaned into character fluent branding to build long term recognition.
  
• Balances price led offers with a playful narrative, making it one of the standout best holiday marketing campaigns in high street retail.

FAQ

Which brands had the best holiday ads of 2025 overall?

John Lewis, Waitrose, Amazon, Cadbury, Coca Cola, Aldi, Apple, McDonald’s, Heathrow and Boots appear most often on lists of the best Christmas ads of 2025 in trade press and effectiveness studies.

What did the best holiday marketing campaigns tend to have in common?

They used simple, human stories, strong recurring characters or assets, and linked the creative to retail, charity or experiential activity rather than treating the ad as a standalone moment.

Is it risky to repeat a previous Christmas ad rather than make a new one?

Data from firms like Kantar and System1 suggests it can be smart: several of the best holiday ads of 2025 were repeats that outperformed many new spots because they were already familiar and distinctive.

How did AI influence the best holiday ads of 2025?

Most of the brands with the best holiday ads in 2025 leaned away from obviously synthetic visuals and toward practical effects, handcrafted sets and real performances, using AI if at all in support rather than as the star.

What can smaller brands learn from the best Christmas ads of 2025?

You do not need a huge budget, but you do need a clear idea: pick one emotional insight, one distinctive visual or character and one way to carry it into store or online, then build your holiday campaign around that instead of trying to do everything.

Emotional Resonance Always Wins

Looking across the best holiday ads of 2025, one thing is obvious: people do not remember who spent the most; they remember who made them feel something and gave them a clear role to play. Whether it was John Lewis reconnecting a father and son through a house classic, Waitrose using food as a love language, Cadbury’s anonymous chocolate gifting or Coca Cola’s truck tour lighting up towns, the brands with the best holiday ads in 2025 turned stories into rituals. For marketers planning the next season, the lesson is not to chase every trend, but to build one or two distinctive festive ideas and nurture them until they become part of how people experience the holidays.