The best holiday ads of 2025 offer several different ways to build seasonal attention: new storytelling, recurring characters, familiar brand assets, practical craft, and campaigns that extend beyond the film itself. This is an editorial selection of ten standout campaigns, not an objective effectiveness ranking. Where Kantar, System1, or other research firms published testing, those results are identified in the relevant examples. The broader brand strategy lesson is to connect the seasonal idea back to something the audience can recognize and remember.
1. John Lewis – “Where Love Lives”
John Lewis returned with “Where Love Lives,” a rave-tinged story about a teenage son gifting his dad a 12-inch pressing of Alison Limerick’s 1990 house classic and reconnecting through shared club history. The Saatchi & Saatchi film leans on music and small gestures rather than a mascot, and the campaign extends into a real vinyl release whose profits support the retailer’s Building Happier Futures programme for care-experienced young people. (Creative Salon, DJ Mag)
- Shows how a specific cultural reference can give a familiar gifting story more personality and emotional precision.
- Extends the film into a product and charity action without making the emotional story depend on the purchase.
2. Waitrose – “The Perfect Gift”
Waitrose used “The Perfect Gift,” a four-minute romantic comedy starring Keira Knightley and Joe Wilkinson, to make food part of the plot rather than a product cutaway. 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, supported by shorter TV and social edits. (Ads of the World, The Guardian) For a food brand, that is a useful food and beverage marketing lesson: the product is strongest when it belongs naturally to the occasion and story.
- Shows how long-form seasonal storytelling can still work when the product and emotional idea are tightly connected.
- Uses food as the emotional connector rather than interrupting the story with a separate sales message.
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)
- Kantar found that five of its top 10 performing Christmas ads were repeats, while System1 also ranked the returning “Joy Ride” highly, showing why holiday nostalgia marketing can benefit from familiar assets when the idea still feels relevant.
- 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 long-running “Holidays Are Coming” remained one of 2025’s strongest repeat performers in consumer testing. Kantar placed Cadbury and Coca-Cola in the upper end of its advertising database for branding, while System1’s early testing also gave the returning truck ad a maximum score. The campaign extends beyond television through Holiday Caravan stops and live experiences. (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 a distinctive visual identity and recurring brand assets such as colour, music, and the truck, provided they keep being refreshed in relevant contexts.
6. Aldi – Kevin And Katie’s Carrot Wedding Finale
Aldi UK extended a decade of Kevin the Carrot storytelling with Kevin and Katie’s wedding, using a familiar character system rather than rebuilding its Christmas identity from scratch. Created by McCann Manchester, the campaign included a musical wedding story, merchandise, and supporting content. System1’s early 2025 testing scored Aldi’s “The Proposal” strongly, while Kantar later placed Aldi among its top-performing festive advertisers. (LBBOnline, Advanced Television)
- Shows how a recurring character can become a distinctive brand asset when it is developed over years rather than treated as a one-season stunt.
- 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 film, “A Critter Carol,” used handcrafted puppets and practical effects as part of the creative idea. The woodland-creature story centers on an iPhone 17 Pro, and the accompanying behind-the-scenes material emphasized that the film was shot on iPhone. The craft choice stood out during a year when AI-generated advertising was itself part of the industry conversation. (The Verge)
- Shows how practical craft can become a differentiating creative decision without implying that one production method is universally more effective.
- 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 built its 2025 holiday campaign around Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch, pairing a themed meal, Dill Pickle McShaker Fries, collectible socks, television creative, creator-led gaming integrations, and a Times Square presence. Marketing Dive describes the work as part of a broader IP-takeover strategy, while the Canadian execution adapted the idea for its local market. (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 teddy bear couple Doris and Edward Bair for “It Must Be Love,” their first appearance since 2018, and extended the idea into Terminal 4 with “Terminal Paw” signage and airport activations. The St Luke’s film focuses on festive crowds, travel, and reunion, while System1 later ranked Heathrow among its 5.9-Star Christmas performers. (Heathrow Media Centre, Creative Moment) The transferable travel and hospitality marketing lesson is to connect the emotional promise to the actual customer journey, not only the ad film.
- 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?
This article is an editorial selection of ten standout campaigns, not a single objective ranking. Kantar and System1 published separate effectiveness lists with different methodologies, while trade press and audience-favourite studies highlighted other campaigns.
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?
It can be a smart choice when the creative platform is still distinctive. Kantar found that five of its top 10 performing Christmas ads in 2025 were repeats, while System1 also found returning creative among its strongest performers.
How did AI influence the best holiday ads of 2025?
AI was part of the broader advertising debate in 2025, but the campaigns in this editorial list used a range of production approaches. Apple’s handcrafted puppetry was notable precisely because practical craft became part of the story; that does not establish that avoiding AI caused stronger effectiveness.
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.
What the Best Holiday Ads of 2025 Suggest
Across these ten campaigns, the strongest pattern is coherence. John Lewis connected music, gifting, and charity. Waitrose made the product part of the plot. Cadbury, Coca-Cola, Aldi, and Amazon benefited from familiarity. Heathrow extended a reunion story into the airport itself. That is where integrated holiday marketing becomes more useful than treating the film as a standalone asset.
For Canadian teams, a Canadian marketing agency can help adapt seasonal offers, cultural references, media plans, and landing pages for the audiences actually seeing the campaign. The goal is not to copy one of these ads, but to identify the distinctive idea your own brand can repeat across channels.
Brand Vision is a branding agency that helps connect strategy, identity, digital experience, and marketing execution. If you are planning a seasonal campaign and want a focused outside perspective, discuss your seasonal campaign with Brand Vision.
