Northern brands take contrasting routes to festive shoppers in 2026 Christmas ads

This year’s Christmas adverts from Northern retailers set out very different pitches to the same shoppers, ranging from a fairy-tale food shop at Morrisons and a rave at Asda to an undercover Santa for M&S.

Bradford-based Morrisons has Daddy Bear visiting the fish counter. Leeds-based Asda turns the season into a rave to make its case on price. M&S, whose origins lie in a stall at Leeds’s Kirkgate Market, has cast James Norton as a Santa who travels incognito to find out what the retailer sells.

Each film offers its own argument for the brand. Morrisons puts its in-store food specialists and their know-how on screen. Asda promises a big celebration for less money, while M&S wants to be front of mind for the whole occasion, covering both what people serve and what they wear.

For the agencies involved, a recurring question is how much of a Christmas campaign’s value lies in familiarity. McCann Manchester’s last Christmas ad for Aldi brings back Kevin the Carrot for the eleventh time. Kearsley-based mydentist, meanwhile, is relying on shoppers knowing the work of six major retailers well enough to get its own white Christmas joke.

The Advertising Association and WARC forecast record UK ad spend of £14bn for the last three months of 2026, up 8.2% year on year. The figure covers all UK advertising in the quarter and does not show how much any single brand put into its Christmas campaign.

The channel breakdown is more telling. Spend on social media is forecast to grow 18.5%, compared with 16.2% for retail media and 1.6% for total TV. The films may get the attention, but several of the fastest-growing channels are the places where people scroll, browse and buy.

What the supermarkets are selling

Morrisons uses its fairy tale to put a fishmonger into a Christmas advert. In Christmas Made Just Right, created by Leo UK, Daddy Bear goes to Market Street to buy a salmon and is given tips on how to cook it. Goldilocks provides the twist, and the fresh-food counter provides the reason to visit. The 90-second film was directed by Nick Ball through MJZ.

Asda is more direct about price. Its campaign from Lucky Generals turns familiar festive moments into dance-floor chaos, including a grandad who finds himself transported into a Christmas rave. Asda has spread the work over four 30-second films plus a bonus edit, allowing it to promote different products as shoppers progress from decorating and buying gifts to the big food shop.

M&S gives its Santa a different task. James Norton shaves his beard off and goes undercover, with Lucy Punch as Mrs Claus and music from Katherine Jenkins. Not since 2017 has M&S combined food, fashion, home and beauty within a single Christmas campaign. The Home of Christmas was created by Mother and directed by Shannon Murphy through Smuggler.

The value of a familiar character

Aldi’s hunt for Cauli Dog also serves as a goodbye to the agency that created Kevin. For whichever creative team takes on Aldi next, the question will be how far it can change things while holding on to what shoppers already know. Two other Northern retailers have struck that balance in quite different ways.

South Shields-based Barbour has reunited with Aardman to bring back Wallace and Gromit, using stop-motion and a winter walk that goes wrong to work a dog jacket and a jumper into the joke. Very has added to its flamingo family in a campaign by The Gate and M3Labs that blends CGI with AI-assisted animation and spans both Christmas and Black Friday. Barbour’s well-known characters sell the joy of giving, while Very deploys them across two shopping moments.

Northern work beyond the supermarkets

Bury-based JD pushes Christmas on towards New Year’s Eve. Create the New, from Uncommon Creative Studio, features DJs, athletes and young creatives, soundtracked by Grace and Paul Oakenfold’s Not Over Yet, and frames the close of the year as a warm-up for whatever comes next.

The agency map works in both directions. Northern retailers hire agencies from elsewhere, and Northern teams are producing Christmas work for national clients. Landsec’s animated turkey campaign was led by Newcastle agency The Traveller and the Bear, with production from Velvet Film, Kalua and Flipbook Studio, and Republic of Media handling strategy and media. The advert points shoppers to destinations including Liverpool ONE and Trinity Leeds.

Perhaps the most pointed use of Christmas advertising conventions comes from a campaign with no product to sell. In a film for Shelter by MediaCity agency Meanwhile, a mother and her daughter are counting down to a big day, which turns out to be the day they get a home of their own. Because the familiar set-up leads viewers to think they know where it is going, the real story hits harder when it arrives.