The 2026 John Lewis Christmas advert is here – and it’s Kristin Scott Thomas v Pickles the evil AI overlord puppy!

This year’s festive special looks forward to the time when chatbots reign supreme and humans prepare to be stamped out for ever. What a treat! John Lewis Christmas ad stars Kristin Scott Thomas as glamorous granny on a gift hunt The John Lewis Christmas advert no longer lands wit

This year’s festive special looks forward to the time when chatbots reign supreme and humans prepare to be stamped out for ever. What a treat! John Lewis Christmas ad stars Kristin Scott Thomas as glamorous granny on a gift hunt The John Lewis Christmas advert no longer lands with the same thud as old.

Once it prompted full media saturation and performative crying contests on social media. Now, more often than not, it’s the thing you skip before watching cat videos on YouTube. Nevertheless, its release is still an event, and so here we are again.

This year, either by fluke or by design, John Lewis has managed to remember that it is a shop, and not simply a vessel for feelings of unfathomable sadness. Rather than being a vignette about lonely penguins or Moon Hitlers or Elton John’s growing fears about his own mortality, the John Lewis Christmas advert is literally about a woman going shopping. Admittedly there are caveats, but we’ll get to those.

For the most part, this is less ‘Christmas can be emotionally brutal’ and more ‘Hey guys, remember shops?’ That has to be a good thing. Continue reading...