The UK’s annual Christmas campaigns are rolling out. With the national mood decidedly wary, brands are beginning to move past one-note festive tropes, instead balancing nostalgic comfort with a more realistic take on today’s challenges.

These campaigns foster solidarity, acknowledging that Christmas isn't just about curated moments, but also shared experiences and connection amid wider instability.

Nostalgia

Nostalgia remains a common cultural theme, providing comfort in uncertain times. In addition to familiar characters – from Barbour’s Wallace and Gromit to Sainsbury’s BFG – artistic choices reinforce nostalgia in a visually vibrant way. Burberry’s grainy camcorder footage is fondly reminiscent of home movies, while John Lewis’s nostalgia-driven plot features vinyl records. These analogue touches are positioned as a meaningful counterpoint to digital fatigue, reminding audiences of the slower, more tangible pleasures of the past.

Music also becomes a sentimental cultural symbol, with 90s club classics like ‘Where Love Lies’ in John Lewis’s ad and ‘Rhythm is a Dancer’ in Marks & Spencer’s fashion and beauty campaign. These tracks tap into both collective and imagined memories of a pre-digital era, where dancefloors symbolised communal identity and togetherness.

Addressing reality

Alongside nostalgia, there’s a more authentic and, at times, darker undercurrent addressing reality in these year’s festive campaigns. John Lewis’s spot, where a vinyl record gift bonds father and son, taps into an ongoing reckoning with masculinity. With growing focus on men’s mental health and emotional expression, the ad reflects a wider shift from traditional models of masculinity to more open, nuanced expressions of love.

Meanwhile, Tesco acknowledges typical Christmas tensions with unusual frankness. Scenes include heated party games and awkward visits from the neighbours. One even features tension at the dinner table following a grandfather’s undisclosed opinion, evoking current social and political divisions, and wider conversations around emotional labour with family members. In engaging these narratives, brands are presenting a more grounded and potentially uncomfortable lived reality – Christmas is not always universally joyous, and festive cheer can coexist with friction.

The true meaning of value

During a relentless cost-of-living crisis, 2025’s Christmas campaigns are unusually direct about money. To the tune of Let It Snow, Asda’s Grinch laments how the "prices this year are frightful" and that he is "quite low on dough", using parody and humour to create solidarity around the financial woes shared by many.

Boots also plays up this dynamic, as Puss in Boots gifts the Snow Queen a pair of hand warmers. Available for £1, the gift feels hilariously out of place at the Queen’s ball, yet she is delighted by the thoughtful accessory for her icy surroundings. The gift’s value lies in its meaningfulness, not its monetary worth.

Amid the humour, there is genuine sincerity and desire to do good, with Lidl’s aptly-named ‘More to Value this Christmas’ inviting us to consider what we truly cherish. Suggesting the true meaning of the season is connection ("it’s not me me me anymore, it’s us"), the protagonist reflects on what others might enjoy rather than herself, ending with a real-life call-to-action with a donation request for Lidl’s toy bank.

Rethinking celebrity

This year’s campaigns reveal a recalibration of celebrity. JD Sports hands over its visual language to young people, who have shot the entire ad on phones. The use of something as commonplace as a phone to shoot the campaign becomes a cue in itself, signalling the dissolution of traditional media hierarchies. Within this DIY aesthetic, celebrities like Chunkz and Jade Thirlwall appear alongside teens discussing GCSE results, spending time with friends, and enjoying nights out. Celebrity is recoded as everyday, encapsulated by the closing clip of Cole Palmer cycling past a group of teens ("No Lambo today?!").

This desire for more relatable celebrity also comes through in other campaigns. The Inbetweeners’ Simon Bird adds his characteristically awkward everyman persona to the Argos campaign, while Waitrose’s mini-romcom hinges its premise on Joe Wilkinson’s endearing normality.

Together, these ads reflect a relationship with celebrity that feels less reverential than before. As many struggle financially, traditional celebrity glamour feels out of touch, with brands looking to connect with audiences through a more relatable approach.

This year’s campaigns depict a more nuanced reality. Light-heartedness and nostalgia are balanced with honest portrayals of Christmas and contemporary life, with brands not shying away from financial pressures, family friction or social divide. Rather than pure escapism, brands are acknowledging that Christmas doesn’t have to be perfect to be meaningful.

Takeaways for brands

• Nostalgia vs. reality: Nostalgia remains powerful, but it’s important to balance this with honest depictions of contemporary life, along with its challenges, to avoid seeming out of touch
• It’s the thought that counts: Highlighting the emotional value of gifts over cost taps into the shared experience of navigating financial uncertainty
• Relatable appeal: With glamour under more scrutiny, brands that showcase the real people behind celebrity will appeal to authenticity-seeking audiences.

Caroline Bartlett is senior semiotician and cultural analyst at Sign Salad