Tinsel, Tears and a Feral Robin: The 2026 Christmas Advert Power Rankings

Every November, the UK telly schedule becomes a battlefield of soft-focus snow, minor-key piano and a suspiciously emotional robin. The Christmas advert has become its own genre: part short film, part emotional ambush, part excuse for a supermarket to make you cry about a parsnip.

For 2026, the brief seems to have been: make it cosy, but make it odd. Several retailers have clearly realised that British viewers will happily accept a bit of festive chaos with their sentimentality — as long as nobody mentions the word 'journey'. So we have done the only sensible thing and turned the whole thing into a power rankings. This is not about which advert is objectively best. It is about which one understood the assignment: be weird, be shareable, be the reason someone types 'why is the sprout wearing a waistcoat' into the group chat.

How we scored the festive chaos

Each advert was marked out of 100 across four categories. Quirk (30 points): did it make us say 'sorry, what?' in a good way? Meme potential (25): could it be screenshotted and reposted with a caption about work by 9am? Emotional manipulation (25): did it go for the throat in a way that felt earned, or did it just bring out the sad piano? Group-chat shareability (20): would your mates actually watch it, or would they reply with a single crying-laughing emoji and move on?

10. Very — 'The Group Chat Christmas' (58/100)

A family communicates entirely through increasingly unhinged voice notes while decorating the tree. Relatable? Yes. Festive? Sort of. The problem is that it feels less like a Christmas advert and more like an ad for WhatsApp with tinsel stapled to it. Quirk 12/30, Meme 18/25, Emotional 10/25, Share 18/20. It will get shared, but mostly by people saying 'this is my family' in a tone that suggests they are not entirely thrilled about it.

9. Amazon UK — 'The Last-Minute Elf' (61/100)

A stressed elf sprints through a warehouse, scans a parcel and whispers 'we move' into a headset. It is fine. It is competent. It is essentially a delivery advert wearing a pointy hat. Quirk 10/30, Meme 15/25, Emotional 16/25, Share 20/20. The meme potential is doing a lot of heavy lifting here: 'me on 23 December' will carry this one all the way to Boxing Day.

8. Tesco — 'Gravy Boat Down' (64/100)

A village's prized gravy boat goes missing on Christmas Eve and everyone suspects the vicar. This is deeply British in a way that is hard to argue with. It is not weird enough to be truly chaotic, but it is odd enough to be memorable. Quirk 20/30, Meme 12/25, Emotional 14/25, Share 18/20. Extra points for making a condiment vessel feel like a national emergency.

7. Boots — 'The Mirror That Knew Too Much' (67/100)

A department-store mirror compliments shoppers, then gets a bit teary about how much they have grown. It is sweet, slightly unsettling and exactly the kind of thing that makes you wonder if the mirror has seen too much. Quirk 22/30, Meme 14/25, Emotional 16/25, Share 15/20. A solid mid-table entry: not a bin fire, not a classic.

6. Sainsbury's — 'The Cheese Board of Dreams' (71/100)

A family builds a cheese board so elaborate that it gets its own postcode. There is a moment where someone says 'we may have gone too far' and honestly, they have. Quirk 18/30, Meme 20/25, Emotional 13/25, Share 20/20. This one will do numbers on food Instagram, which is basically the modern equivalent of a Christmas number one.

5. Lidl — 'Bear in a Bauble' (74/100)

A tiny bear lives inside a giant bauble and silently judges the family's roast potatoes. That is it. That is the advert. It is deeply silly, strangely hypnotic and exactly the kind of low-stakes nonsense the internet loves. Quirk 24/30, Meme 18/25, Emotional 12/25, Share 20/20. The bear has no dialogue and yet somehow delivers the best performance of the season.

4. Aldi — 'Kevin the Carrot: Multiverse of Mash' (78/100)

Kevin meets alternate versions of himself, including one who is a regional manager and one who appears to be a parsnip with a grudge. It is ridiculous, it knows it is ridiculous, and that is why it works. Quirk 25/30, Meme 22/25, Emotional 11/25, Share 20/20. At this point Kevin is less a mascot and more a national institution with a root vegetable for a head.

3. Ikea — 'The Flatpack Nativity' (81/100)

A couple attempts to assemble a nativity scene with an Allen key. The donkey has spare screws. Mary is missing a crucial piece. A wise man is definitely on backwards. It is a quietly brilliant bit of physical comedy that understands exactly how much the UK loves a flatpack disaster. Quirk 26/30, Meme 20/25, Emotional 15/25, Share 20/20. The lack of dialogue is a flex.

2. John Lewis — 'The Lighthouse Keeper's Octopus' (84/100)

A lonely lighthouse keeper befriends an octopus who decorates the tower with seaweed tinsel and a starfish on top. Yes, it is emotionally manipulative. Yes, the octopus is doing a lot of the heavy lifting. But it is also genuinely lovely, and the octopus has more charisma than most sitcom leads. Quirk 24/30, Meme 16/25, Emotional 24/25, Share 20/20. The group chat will be divided between 'I cried' and 'it's an octopus, mate'.

1. M&S — 'Not Just Any Sprout' (88/100)

A single sprout gains sentience, puts on a tailored waistcoat and hosts a dinner party for the rest of the vegetable drawer. It is bizarre. It is camp. It is the only advert this year that made us pause the telly and say 'what on earth is happening' in the best possible way. Quirk 28/30, Meme 24/25, Emotional 16/25, Share 20/20. The sprout is the moment. The sprout is the meme. The sprout is Christmas.

The verdict

The 2026 Christmas adverts have proved that British viewers do not just want tears and tinsel. We want a bit of chaos. We want a bear in a bauble, a flatpack donkey and a sprout in a waistcoat. We want to be able to send a screenshot to the group chat with the caption 'this is you'. The brands that understood that are the ones at the top of the pile. The ones that played it safe are still fine, but they are not getting a place in the festive hall of fame. And frankly, if your Christmas advert does not feature at least one inexplicable animal, have you even tried?