The tradition of Christmas advertising is a long-standing one. Since the Victorian era, department stores have been draping their windows in festive displays, printing posters to advertise this year’s new ideal Christmas gift and eventually, making the now infamous Christmas television advertisement. One of the first commercial products to appear on television was ‘Coca-Cola’ and, subsequently, the ‘Coca Cola’ Christmas advertisement came to be seen as the quintessential holiday commercial. However, in recent years other brands, stores and labels have joined in the flurried release of Christmas commercials and each year the commencement of the Christmas season brings with it a new level of excitement in the world of advertising; the success of last year’s campaign is simply the previous chapter in a brand’s advertising story. The growth of Christmas advertising throughout history has been a phenomenal one and now, more than ever, these vignettes try to endorse the season of good will through promoting the joy of giving rather than receiving. The yearly release of such advertisements has prompted numerous objections on the grounds of everything from release date to propriety, yet there are far more reasons to be grateful for this tradition than there are for complaint.

This year’s round of Christmas commercials have already hit our screens with the highly anticipated John Lewis advert, starring Monty the Penguin, which premiered on 6th November – over a month and a half before Christmas Day itself. Every year, this early Christmas delivery sparks debates as to whether the consumer-giants of the UK have begun their Christmas campaign too soon. Yet it seems for viewers, the broadcasting of Christmas advertisements has become more than a simple marketing campaign. It has become a statement. A spectacle. An anticipated milestone in the countdown to Christmas. For those of us who cling to the approach of Christmas like a lifeline, these short films are a comforting reassurance that the holidays are not as far away as they might seem.

Alongside the protests regarding the early release of holiday adverts, rings the resounding chorus of ‘it’s just an advert’. Whilst it is true that one of their purposes is to encourage viewers to shop at a certain store or buy a certain product, is it truly credible that hundreds of people have been reduced to sobbing because of how they have been completely and utterly persuaded to shop at John Lewis? The advertisement surely taps into something deeper.

In recent years, the attempts to persuade an audience to shop at a specific store have been reduced to a secondary or even tertiary purpose in Christmas marketing campaigns. The primary focus has now become the storytelling involved in an advert and how this works to captivate an audience, communicating the message that giving and sharing is at the heart of the Christmas season. Today, the term ‘advertisement’ has come to be associated with something superficial, even boring – a nuisance which crops up in the middle of your favourite TV show – but doesn’t the overwhelming public reaction to holiday advertising prove that this all changes at Christmas time? According to the viral video chart of marketing technology company Unruly, John Lewis’ 2014 Christmas ad has been shared over 700,000 times via social media since its release at the beginning of November. Surely this is proof that these advertisements have the capacity to engage their viewers in something more than a bid for their money. Perhaps it is time that we came to accept such adverts for what they really are – a skilful, creative piece of media, perhaps even a piece of art.

This year there has been a controversy surrounding Sainsbury’s Christmas advert, which is set in the trenches of the Western Front during World War One. The Christmas Day truce has been called; two soldiers emerge from the trenches, play football and exchange gifts; the British soldier giving away his single bar of Sainsbury’s chocolate. Whilst some have viewed this advert with disapproval – claiming its use of war to promote a brand is disrespectful, the contrary can also be argued. In their use of setting, Sainsbury’s cleverly calls our attention to the memory of those troops who fought in the trenches with sensitivity and dignity, made yet more poignant by the recent tributes following the centenary of the First World War. Sainsbury’s, working together with the Royal British Legion to produce this advertisement, has also promised to donate all profits from the advert’s £1 chocolate bar to the charity, truly living up to its own tag line – "Christmas is for Sharing".

It is this statement that has, perhaps, led to the advert being voted more popular than the John Lewis commercial in a poll by the Guardian. Whilst the use of a war-time setting in an advertisement has been questioned, consider how many films have used the same setting, that of a natural disaster or the concept of terminal illness as a basis for their plots and yet remained relatively unquestioned. In the case of the Sainsbury’s Christmas advertisement, a spectator can at least rest assured that some of the profits achieved through the commercial itself will be donated to a worthwhile cause.

Even as I write this article, I find myself asking – what happened to the simple joy of Christmas? When did our culture become so overly-analytical and morally-smug that we begin to critique something as simple as a Christmas television advert? Today, in reality, any media-based form of expression can provoke a negative reaction. Perhaps sometimes, and most especially at Christmas time, we need to try a little harder to look for the positive rather than search profusely for some detail which can be moulded into a problem.

So much of Christmas is about childhood. It's about prioritising that spontaneous joy that we thought adulthood had left behind. It's about appreciating what we have and sharing with those we love. For me, the Christmas advertisement endorses all of these things. It has become yet another part of our contemporary Christmas culture – a part that should be embraced along with the anticipation, excitement and skilful story-telling.