The 10 most memorable Christmas adverts of 2022

Virgin Radio

22 Dec 2022, 14:41

We’ve witnessed some truly beautiful Christmas adverts this year, with many making us laugh, cry and feel festive this holiday season. 

We’ve had some real Christmas crackers in 2022, with the likes of Asda, Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s landing some big names to carry their festive adverts, while the likes of John Lewis and McDonald's tugged on our heartstrings with some cosy (sometimes tear-jerking) features. 

Now the festive season is here, we can sit back and reminisce about the best adverts we’ve seen grace our screens in 2022. Here are the top 10 Christmas adverts of 2022:

Aldi

Surprisingly, Aldi is the only store on this list to mention the fact that The World Cup 2022 took place over the winter months, and did so with some truly amazing puns. 

In the first of two adverts, Aldi mascot Kevin The Carrot and his family have a kick-about while waiting for a flight to Paris, with the ad paying homage to the iconic 1998 Nike World Cup ad that featured Brazil’s World Cup squad playing football around an airport, with Ronaldo missing a goal at the very end.

A team of Aldi characters, including Ronaldi Messy, MmmBap, Roy Bean, Macaroony, Beth Swede and Marrowdona, kick the ball around the airport but as the ball gets passed to Kevin, he misses it. To make things worse, the carrot looks out the window to see his plane has taken off without him.

The second ad sees Kevin, in full Home Alone mode, with the adorable veg setting up traps to protect his house from an intruder - who turns out to be Santa himself! 

Tesco

Supermarket Tesco had a different idea in mind for their 2022 offering, and chose to style their advert like a party political broadcast as The Christmas Party. 

Being mindful of the current financial climate, Tesco promised to have "more pigs in more blankets for more people,” and “the only thing we’ll cut are prices…and cake.”

During the clip, Tesco carol singers showed off some of the delicious range available in stores and also pledged that “all bedtimes will be scrapped,” much to the shock of the parents listening on their front door step.

In keeping with the theme of affordability, Tesco also demonstrated their Christmas dinner for five for under £25, as well as confirmed the all-important question of when bin day is, to the delight of an entire street. 

Waitrose

Waitrose once again put food as the focal point of their 2022 offering, with the whole year of getting tasty treats from farm-to-table being at the heart of the advert. 

Set to Frank Sinatra’s cover of It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas, the clip starts on 1st January, set with frost and dark mornings on the farm, all the way through to 2nd December.

That includes the frosty mornings setting up fencing, to the spring beekeeper keeping his bees happy. The sunshine then comes out for those working hard in the fields. 

Once the harvesting begins, those sprouts start coming in from the cold, ready for the Christmas dinner plate, alongside some tantalising desserts, and a hearty Waitrose delivery to boot! 

It seems the year isn’t without a hitch though, as there are tears at the Christmas dinner table after a young boy is left with no pigs in blankets, before his big sister offers her own. 

All together now…awwwww! 

Lidl 

Speaking of warm fuzzies, supermarket Lidl tugged on the heart strings yet again with their adorable new bear, aptly named, Lidl Bear.

Your kids won't be able to get their hands on the bear for themselves, as Lidl say with the cost of living crisis, they want people to donate a toy or money for what they would have spent on the bear instead to their toy bank.

The ad starts when a dad accidentally shrinks his jumper in the wash, and his daughter puts the jumper on her bear. With his brand new look, Lidl Bear finds fame thanks to his new clothing and becomes the (grumpy) face of the supermarket.

The world goes Lidl bear crazy, but a Christmas wish sees the bear and girl reunited.

Sainsbury's 

Sainsburys went ahead and confirmed what we all knew for their 2022 Christmas ad - that Alison Hammond is a literal queen!

The This Morning host starred as The Countess in the advert, who is in charge of picking every item on a medieval style banquet for the festive season. 

She goes through some of Sainsbury’s new Christmas items, like the Taste the Difference Crab Thermidor Crumpets and Cider Glazed Gammon, but the one thing she can’t stand for is the traditional Christmas Pud!

At the banquet, the time comes for The Countess’ “treatie time” and a young and determined chef sets down his Taste the Difference Caramelised Biscuit Christmas Pudding, much to the shock of others around the table and The Countess herself.

However, after giving it a taste it seems the chef was able to change her mind as Hammond's character explains this dessert is “a bit of me”.

Perfection.

Amazon

Amazon had us reaching for the tissues with their lovely ode to childhood dreams in their feature, which was directed by Marvel’s Taika Waititi. 

The heartwarming advert features a father and daughter duo who live together in the lead up to the festive season. 

Clearly besotted with her snow globe, the daughter carries the trinket with her at all times, taking it to school, the dentist and even has it sitting opposite her at dinner. 

Looking at the snowy decoration, the dad is then inspired to get to work, collecting a Christmas tree and some fans from his neighbours, before ordering a shredder on Amazon for the final piece of the adorable puzzle. 

It turns out all that preparation was to make the daughter her very own snow globe within a greenhouse, much to her incredible delight.

McDonalds

Another heartwarmer now, and McDonald’s 2022 ad, called The List, starred a boy called Alfie, who gets over-excited when his mum suggests he should write a Christmas list. 

The youngster then dashes to his room to begin writing his mammoth list in anticipation of The Big Day, and ends up sticking reams of paper together with his wishes and colourful illustrations. 

The list gets so long, it wraps around the sparkling Christmas tree and around the houses along the snow-covered streets. 

While off to post his lengthy letter to Santa, a huge gust of wind blows the letter up into the sky, and much to the disappointment of Alfie, the wish list is gone forever. 

Determined to cheer their son up, Alfie’s parents then take him into a McDonald’s for an unexpected family trip, which gives them the warm, cosy feeling that comes with spending time together at Christmas.

John Lewis 

John Lewis once again had viewers in tears with their festive feature, called The Beginner. 

The 90-second ad shows the story of a middle-aged man struggling to learn how to skateboard for the first time in the build-up to Christmas. 

His determination to master the skill seemingly takes a while, with the man deciding to dedicate much of his time to the sport, and has the aches and pains to prove. 

Unfortunately for him, the wannabe skater ends up flat on his face on more than one occasion, to the hilarity of his friends while at their Christmas party. 

Why the man wants to learn how to skateboard is a mystery until the final scene, which shows a social worker at his door with a young teenager, Ellie, who has arrived at her new foster home- carrying her skateboard.

Set to a cover of Blink 182’s All The Small Things by US artist Mike Geier, John Lewis has said they wanted the advert to feature “authentic voices of carers” and “young people with different experiences of a complex care system”.

M&S Food

One of the first out of the gate for the Christmas ads was Marks and Spencer’s Food, which had their 2022 clip released on 2nd November. 

Not only did their 2022 Christmas ad see the return of the Fairy Godmother, voiced by Dawn French, but the company went all out by bringing in another huge comedy name - Jennifer Saunders. 

During the special French & Saunders reunion, Ab Fab star Jennifer plays a new character, called Duckie, who is a much loved (perhaps over-loved) dog toy.

The advert starts with Dawn’s Fairy Godmother searching for a friend in the Christmas tree decorations, and ends up bringing Duckie to life. 

While poking at her falling stuffing, Duckie then tries to escape the excitable family dog, called Wylie, and she ends up being able to flap her wings to fly away, courtesy of the Fairy Godmother. 

Asda

This might be the most outlandish 2022 Crimbo ad, purely on the effects used, but Asda went all out with their incredible ad featuring none other than Will Ferrell as Buddy the Elf.

The comedian starred as the loveable character in 2003 classic Elf, and Asda has used original footage and dialogue from the beloved Christmas movie to place Buddy right at the heart of a busy Asda store in the build up to his favourite time of year. 

Set to the iconic festive track, Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, and created by merging film footage with newly filmed scenes, the ad captures Buddy’s wide-eyed wonder and unbridled passion for all things festive as we join him on his first day as a member of the Asda in-store Christmas team.

The film starts with a homage to the hilarious ‘street-crossing’ scene with Asda trolleys instead of New York cabs, before Buddy begins his somewhat chaotic trial shift by bounding around the shop aisles and checking out the mince pies and pigs in blankets

Buddy then distracts his colleagues and everyone in the store with his chance to sing loudly over the tannoy system…because the best way to spread Christmas cheer is for singing loud for all to hear!

The real magic happens once the store closes, and Buddy is left to his own devices to make his local Asda a winter wonderland, with tinsel, twinkly lights and even an ‘elf checkout’.