In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s nearly Christmas. Yes, it crept up on me too. Here, sadly, with one or two notable exceptions, on TV it’s mainly just the usual retail noise about deals with little investment in making us feel anything except weary of noisy ads.

So, to get us all in the Christmas spirit, here are my top five UK Christmas ads, a place where they save up for Christmas ads. I can promise you snow, singing, dancing and celebrities helping various retail brands entice you to choose them this Christmas.

Many know that they are picking people up after a pretty terrible time where families and friends have been separated, and may still be. Reminding us what it’s like to connect with loved ones after so long apart, to celebrate being together. So heavy doses of seratonin all round.

My top five in reverse order are at this link to the NZ Herald website:

• ASDA
• John Lewis
• M&S
• Tesco
• Waitrose