Trade me a goat for some turnips! Nothing is older than the John Lewis Christmas advert 2025 | television

TThe strange thing about traditions is that they tend to last longer than their usefulness. Bonfire Night, once a way for the government to remind the public of its ability to kill revolutionaries, has simply become an excuse to eat a potato in a field. Church bells still ring on Sunday mornings, when worshipers communicate via WhatsApp much faster and more considerate. And the John Lewis Christmas advert is still a thing.

True, it wasn’t long before the John Lewis Christmas advert became something of a cultural institution. A tear gas grenade was thrown at the TV tables to make viewers cry in the middle of The Cube. But now it’s 2025, and things have changed. The John Lewis ad is a linear TV ad about a department store, although the only way to describe either of these things to a child is YouTube without the search function and Amazon that you have to actually walk to.

However, John Lewis’ Christmas advert has arrived this year – 10 days earlier than last year – and it’s business as usual. A boy buys his father a vinyl copy of The House Where Love Lives by Alison Limerick. The recording transports the father to the dance floor, where he is welcomed by his son as an infant, then a toddler, and finally as a teenager. And then, through the sheer force of John Lewis, the song slows down into a sludgy cover version of itself.

In other words, this is a mash-up of Love Actually and Aftersun, and no one knew they needed it. Previously, you’ll recall that Alan Rickman gifted his wife Emma Thompson with a Joni Mitchell CD, an act that moved her to tears. Finally, you’ll remember father and daughter joyfully dancing to “Under Pressure.”

Oh, sure, you can read more about those references if you like. You could suggest that the scene in Aftersun represents the last moment father and daughter spend together before he abandons her forever, causing her unresolved trauma for the rest of her life. And you might want to point out that Emma Thompson was actually crying because the CD was confirmation that Alan Rickman was cheating on her and that their marriage was over. But shut up, it’s Christmas.

Either way, the smart thing about the ad is that parents and kids will take something different from it. The fact that the son bought such a thoughtful gift is a sign that he realizes that his father was once a real person with his own desires and interests and was not just there to be of service to his family. It is a profound moment for the child, one that can only change the nature of the relationship.

At the same time, the ad perfectly captures an all-too-common parenting moment. I’m talking, of course, about the time you decided to go clubbing, only to realize that ever since you had a baby you’d grown horribly old and emaciated, and that, to all the young people around you, you now represented the creeping specter of death, and suddenly you were struck by the realization of how old you had become, you went home depressed and never tried anything fun or exciting again until you died.

And then anyone under 20 will take something else away from the ad. IE: What the hell does any of this mean? It’s a movie about a guy who buys a vinyl record from a brick and mortar store, and it’s played on linear TV? Why? Why go to all this trouble? Why won’t the son play the song on Spotify? Why doesn’t he write “Where Love Lives” into TikTok and give his dad the gift of an algorithmically generated feed of some Russian kids that they lip-sync to? Wouldn’t that be easier?

Honestly, for Gen Z or younger, this whole thing must be like watching a highly-praised entry from an old tech contest. You know? Next year, why not go further? Why not make a John Lewis advert as a phénakisticope about a farmer trading goats for a bag of leftover turnips? It couldn’t be more anachronistic than this.

But maybe I’m being sarcastic. There is still romance in clinging to traditions that are no longer useful. A tangible record will always be more private than an online stream. Visiting a store will always be more personal than clicking on something on a website. There’s something reassuring about the way we still discuss a TV ad. We do this through the medium of print journalism, which is the most antiquated technology of all. Merry Christmas everyone!