The Best Christmas Adverts Of All Time: From John Lewis And Yellow Pages To Coca-Cola And Sainsbury's

Warning: nostalgia ahead 🎄
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The bonfires and fireworks from 5 November may have only just fizzled out but it’s well and truly Christmas season – if the ads on the telly are anything to go by at least.

As the season of sweet mince pies, warming mulled wine and Christmas trees approaches, HuffPost UK has rounded up the best Christmas ads of all time to get you in the festive spirit.

Yellow Pages: Mistletoe (1992)

Capturing hearts and minds for almost three decades, there are few adverts that look more classic 90s than this Christmas cracker. It has it all: young romance, a real-life desk phone AND a Yellow Pages that doubles as a step.

And for those among you who are too young to know what a Yellow Pages is - it was a free telephone directory that could be found in most homes, a relic of the pre-internet era.

Coca-Cola: Holidays Are Coming (1995)

This ad is a proper classic and features a bunch of wide-eyed families delighted at the sight of Coca-Cola trucks decked out in Christmas lights. It features the famed ‘holidays are coming’ tune, which at one point was practically synonymous with the festive season.

Because what says Christmas more than a convoy of lorries lugging Coca-Cola around the USA? 

Sainsbury’s: Christmas is for Sharing (2014)

This is a beautifully crafted ad that stretches over three minutes and hits you right in the feels. 

Based on true events, the advert, made in partnership with the British Legion, tells the story of WW1 British and German troops who agreed a truce on Christmas Day so that they could play football together before going back to their trenches to continue fighting. 

John Lewis: The Long Wait (2011) 

No list would be complete without John Lewis. The retailer has  created some of the most popular, uplifting, and heart warming Christmas adverts of recent times.

The first favourite is The Long Wait, which features a little boy who can’t wait for Christmas to arrive. The audience is led to believe he’s impatient to receive his own presents, only to discover that in fact he was excited to give his parents theirs.

John Lewis: The Man On The Moon (2015)

The Man On The Moon featured a young girl sending a Christmas gift to an elderly man who lives alone on the moon. 

She spots him with her telescope and attempts to send him one so that they can become friends - first unsuccessfully using paper aeroplanes and a catapult and then a bunch of helium balloons. 

Toys R US: Magical Place (1989)

If you were an 80s, 90s, or even a 00s child there may have been a time where you begged your parents to take you into Toys ‘R’ Us. 

This 29-year old advert features its star character Geoffrey the Giraffe overseeing the stocking of the store for Christmas and features it’s famous  singing slogan: “There’s a magical place, we’re on our way there
With toys in their millions all under one roof – it’s called Toys ‘R’ Us!”