John Lewis has launched its 2026 Christmas advert, Gloria and Pickles, using a familiar seasonal dilemma — what to give grandchildren who seem hard to buy for — to make the case for time, imagination and shared experience over cash.

Both accounts centre on Gloria, played by Kristin Scott Thomas, who worries that she no longer knows what her grandchildren Freddie and Maggie would value. After they lose interest in her old toys, she puts money in their Christmas cards. Pickles, a vintage pull-along dog voiced by Paul Whitehouse, springs to life and tells her: “You can do better than cash.”¹

The cost-of-living framing is especially prominent in one account. It describes Gloria’s eventual answer — a disco-lit “Gran Cave” created from recycled household items and a small number of gifts — as a way to reconnect across generations without an extravagant outlay. The children first receive empty envelopes, then discover that a key unlocks the transformed room, where they join their grandmother for music and dancing.¹

The other account places the film in a broader brand narrative: the retailer’s 20th Christmas advert. It notes that the campaign, developed by Saatchi & Saatchi under the line “Don’t give up on giving,” turns Gloria’s last-minute shopping trip into a snowy London adventure in a colourful tuk-tuk before she reaches John Lewis.²

The two versions also agree on the soundtrack: Sam Fender’s cover of the Rolling Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want. Fender said it was “a privilege to rework such an iconic song,” with pupils from his former school contributing the children’s choir and the Easington Colliery Band providing brass.¹

Physical releases of the song will raise profits for Action for Children’s Building Happier Futures programme, supporting people who have grown up in care. The campaign’s message is therefore both commercial and charitable: a festive purchase is presented as part of a wider appeal for thoughtful giving.²