When a Gift Says What Words Can’t
Every year, the John Lewis Christmas ad lands with the same predictable drama as the first mince pie of the season. You know it’s coming. You know it will make half the UK weep in November. And yet this year’s ad – about a father, a son, a forgotten vinyl and a 90s house classic – actually felt a little different.
The story opens quietly. A dad tidying the usual Christmas morning chaos. A single leftover present. A vinyl record – Where Love Lives by Alison Limerick (a banger) – gifted to him by his hesitant teenage son. He places it on the turntable (Alexa can’t help you with old school vinyl) and suddenly we’re somewhere else: a flashback to a club scene from his youth. Lights, sweat, dancing, freedom. Big tick from all the 90s clubbers!
The tune then softens and, without any big speech or dramatic crescendo, father and son simply meet in the middle and hold each other.
It’s beautifully understated. And that’s exactly why it works.
The emotional truth
So much of life sits in the unsaid. The moments between generations where love is clear, but language is clumsy. And that’s why I loved this ad’s simplicity. No theatrics. No exaggerated tug-at-the-heartstrings scripting. I don’t think there’s even any snow… Just a father, a son, a memory, and a gesture.
And here’s what stayed with me: the ad isn’t really about nostalgia. It’s about recognition. A son saying, “I see who you were before you became my dad.” A father remembering the parts of himself he hasn’t checked in on for years. It also makes me think of my own dad who, when he hears the song The Living Years by Mike and the Mechanics, will always talk about his own father, my Grandad, with a genuine sadness for all the words left unsaid.
Why this one matters
It’s a real treat to see masculinity portrayed with such softness and heart-felt care (not in some Andrew Tate 4Chan crisis). And that feels like a very modern kind of Christmas message.
In a year that’s felt especially sharp around the edges, personally and on a global scale, this advert offers something gentle. A reminder that gifts don’t need to be extravagant. They need to be meaningful. They need to say what we often struggle to articulate.
Impact starts with humanity
Ultimately, this isn’t a story about Christmas. It’s a story about understanding each other: across generations, identities, experiences and years. Because sometimes the most powerful stories aren’t the ones that try to make us cry (even though this one did!), but the ones that remind us to try and connect. (So maybe it is a story about Christmas, after all…)
#JohnLewisAd2025 #Christmas2025 #WhereLoveLives #FatherandSon #Relationships #Gifting
Marie White 