I’m sure like many other people I’m always excited to see what the John Lewis Christmas advert will be, and this year was no different. Last week on the 9th of November the wait was finally over. In case you haven’t seen it yet and don’t want the magic of watching it yourself for the first time ruined, now is your chance to watch it (here's the link) or simply watch it below! Okay, now that that’s out of the way for those of you still here who haven’t seen it, or just want a recap of the advert, let me catch you up to speed. The advert starts with a little boy finding a seed to grow the ‘perfect Christmas tree’, which he asks his gran if they can buy. We then cut to him at home with his family planting the seed and watching it grow under what I assume is a growing lamp. As we start to see the seed grow, we can tell there’s something not quite right about this so-called Christmas tree. One morning the family come down to see that this seed has grown into an overgrown Venus flytrap (hence the name Snapper). It continues to grow even bigger and proceeds to cause an absolute ruckus in their house, even trying to eat the family dog (don’t worry it doesn’t actually eat the dog). The family then get fed up with this huge plant and drag it outside into the snow and replace it with an actual Christmas tree. Honestly this kind of made me sad, especially because it was snowing outside so it was probably freezing out there, and I’m fairly certain Venus flytraps don’t thrive in the cold. Now I know what you’re saying, but the plant isn’t even real, but still, how would you feel if you got shoved outside in the snow?
Cut to Christmas morning, the child comes downstairs wrapped up in his coat, scarf, hat, and gloves, completely ignores his family, picks up a present and goes outside to see Snapper out in the garden. He gives Snapper one of his presents and the rest of his family join him each giving Snapper one of their presents too. Snapper then proceeds to eat the presents and for a moment we think that he’s not going to give them up. But of course, he does, and the advert has a happy ending with Snapper shooting out some confetti to top it all off.
I’ve heard a lot of mixed opinions about the advert, with some people saying they really enjoyed it, some people saying it was good, but it wasn’t as good as adverts
from previous years, and some people who didn’t like it at all. In my opinion I really liked the advert! I agree that it wasn’t as good as previous years
(my favourite John Lewis Christmas advert was from 2017 which featured Moz the monster. In my eyes he’s how I imagine the head sock monster to look, he even
has just one sock on), but I still really enjoyed it and thought the character of Snapper was really fun. One of the things I really enjoyed about the advert
was the irony of Snapper supposedly being the “perfect Christmas tree” and it then proceeding to cause mayhem. I also liked the message of letting your traditions grow.
I feel like a lot of people have certain Christmas traditions that they do every year, my family included, but I feel like its good to also embrace change and new
traditions, and I think that’s especially relevant with the impact of the pandemic and the number of changes that brought on that we are still experiencing even to
this day.
What were your thoughts on the advert? Did you enjoy it, or were you also disappointed? Let me know over on my Instagram @sockmonstersnstuff.