Why are the best Christmas ads the ones that tap into our inner child?

The best Christmas is the one you’ll never have again – the one when you were 8 years old, wide-eyed with wonder, tearing into the gift you’d secretly wished for all year.

It’s not just a memory; it’s a feeling – that fleeting, boundless joy that no adult Christmas quite recaptures. Sadly, that magical feeling becomes elusive when we get older, so the closest brands can get is to spark a memory of it.

When you think about it, Christmas is a celebration of the nostalgia we feel towards past Christmases. 

That’s why old Christmas songs sound the best, why the best Christmas films are the classics, and why the best Christmas present you ever got was given to you between the ages of 5 and 10. That there is peak Christmas. Everything after is an effort to feel that again.

So the key to making your ad stand out – not just for minutes, but for years – is doing something that taps into that bygone, uncontainable excitement. 

But it also needs to feel 2024 – you want to find that sweet spot between old and new whilst staying true to your brand values. That’s the recipe for cultural endurance.

Looking at this year’s crop of adverts, nostalgia is clearly a theme they had in mind too. Take a look at Tesco’s ad – it’s about a man recalling his abiding memories of making a gingerbread house with his gran as a kid. Then we’ve got Sainsbury’s and Barbour’s ads – using popular characters from children’s books and TV series'. And, of course, the John Lewis ad – literally about a woman reliving her childhood years to find the right gift.

These are the ads that hit different because they remind us of our youth. They inspire that sense of child-like excitement and comfort.

You can literally feel it bubble up as the BFG says ‘fizz-whizzy’. And as soon as you see doughy characters instantly recognisable as Aardman’s Animations pop up on your screen. Even Waitrose’s ingenious ‘Sweet Suspicion’ ad has that retro Agatha Christie vibe that harks back to those old Christmas reruns.

They’re all onto something. Essentially, it’s about helping us reconnect with our inner child. And it’s no wonder we’re seeking that connection again, with increasing financial pressures, as well as shifting political and social landscapes in the backdrop.

Consider the wider cultural trends of recent years: from fashion to film, nostalgia has been a recurring theme. Think Y2K mania, Jane Birkin-inspired bag charms, or the surge in coming-of-age stories like Euphoria, Wednesday, and Stranger Things. Across the board, we’re looking to the past – particularly our childhoods – for comfort and connection.

So it’s not about reinventing the wheel every Christmas. No – it’s about tapping into the uncontainable excitement you felt as a child on Christmas day and enticing it out of hiding once again—because it’s one feeling that’ll never get old.

Image credit: iStock/Fortgens Photography