The decorations are back in the loft, but the best Christmas ads of 2025 are still doing their work. Long after the last mince pie has been eaten, their impact is carrying straight into the New Year.

In this edition of System1 campaigns of the month, we look back at the festive campaigns built for longevity. These are the ones that cut through the seasonal noise, struck a chord with audiences, and will continue to deliver returns well beyond December.

As we step into the year ahead, here are a handful of Christmas and holiday ads that didn’t just win attention, but earned it. They will be bringing new customers, fresh relevance, and lasting commercial value for months to come.

System1, The Creative Effectiveness Platform, unveils the ads of the month for December 20245. System1’s Test Your Ad platform measures consumers’ emotional responses to ads to predict their commercial potential. Creative is assigned a score of 1.0 to 5.9 Stars based on long-term brand-building potential. Ads that make people feel intense, positive emotions like happiness and surprise score high on the scale. Usually just 1% of ads secure a 5-Star score.

Animation Masterclass: Intermarché | Romance, Divine & WIZZ “Unloved Wolf”

Market: France 5.0 Star Rating Test Your Ad Report  

One of the most surprising Christmas ads last year came from Intermarché. A cinematic, animated tale about a wolf trying to find acceptance in a woodland community that rejects him through prejudice is not an obvious festive play. Tackling themes this heavy during Christmas is a bold move, and one that took many by surprise.

The ad works because of what the audience knows. While the characters on screen fear the wolf and read his actions as threatening, we see the truth. That gap in perspective heightens empathy and gives the story real emotional weight, turning a simple narrative into something far more powerful.

Topping our Christmas ad testing in Europe, the campaign is a clear reminder that storytelling, craft and thoughtful character creation still drive impact. By choosing an unlikely protagonist and leaning into familiar fairytale tropes, Intermarché defies expectations and earns its ending. The final moment, when the community realises its mistake and welcomes the wolf to the Christmas table, delivers a strong peak-end payoff.

At its heart, it is a story about inclusion, empathy and the cost of prejudice, and a timely reminder that food can still be a powerful connector at Christmas.

Product Perfection: Dunkin | Artists Equity “The Little Holiday Munchkin”

Market: USA 5.9 Star Rating

Test Your Ad Report

Characters are one of the most reliable ways to drive engagement and build brand recognition year-round. Orlando Wood calls them “fluent device characters” for good reason. When they work, they deliver long-term brand building and boost brand fluency, System1’s measure of brand recall.

The catch is time. Most characters do not make immediate sense and rarely deliver overnight. They need consistent investment, clear creative commitment and patience to build emotional equity and mental availability. The Geico Gecko is the classic example. A gecko has nothing to do with insurance, yet years of disciplined, consistent use turned him into a category icon. Andrew Tindall’s IPA research, Compound Creativity, shows why. Characters can take up to three years to start paying back.

Dunkin spotted a shortcut. Instead of inventing a new character, they turned an existing asset into one. Their product. Donuts.

Last Christmas, Dunkin brought the humble donut hole, the middle bit of a donut that usually gets discarded, to life as the hero of its festive campaign across TV and social. Bright, animated and playful, the work earned the maximum 5.9 Star Rating and stood out in a crowded category. By making the product the character, Dunkin avoided the trap of functional advertising, leading with emotion and charm while still driving interest in its product. A smart move, and one likely to deliver returns well beyond Christmas.

Compounding Culture: Google Pixel | WPP and Arts & Sciences “It’s Pixel, Actually”

Market: UK 4.1 Star Rating

Test Your Ad Report

One of the clearest festive themes from Christmas 2025 was that “new” does not have to mean unfamiliar. Many brands leaned into well-known characters and cultural shortcuts to build equity fast, and Google Pixel was one of the smartest examples.

In a category that too often defaults to functional and frankly dull messaging, Pixel cut through with a self-aware take on a Christmas classic, Love Actually. Instead of rehashing the film, the ad flips it, using humour to make viewers feel in on the joke.

Thomas Brodie-Sangster reprises his role as Sam, now older but still clinging to the idea that his past fame is the main draw. The twist is that it is not. The real star is the Google Pixel and what it can do. That is why the ad works. The product is not bolted on at the end, it is the engine of the story.

By using humour, irony and a familiar cultural reference, Google avoids the trap of feature dumping. It delivers a feature-led message through entertainment, proving that even in tech, the smartest way to sell the product is to make people enjoy the ad first.