When Christmas ads give back

Let’s unpack who’s supporting whom — and why this year’s charity-led campaigns might matter even more.

Supermarket Christmas ads — and the charities they’re supporting

Lidl’s 2025 Christmas ad is warm, playful and festive — but crucially, it’s advertising more than groceries. It spotlights Lidl’s Toy Bank, now a yearly initiative, inviting customers to donate new and unopened toys, games, books and arts & crafts at drop-off points in branches nationwide.

These toys are then distributed through local charities, food banks and community groups serving children who might otherwise wake up to nothing on Christmas morning. It’s a simple model: You shop. You give. A child benefits. And because the support is local, the impact feels personal — something increasingly important to donors.

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Tesco is also using its advertising muscle to push a national toy-donation and food-donation campaign. In over 800 stores, customers are encouraged to donate new toys, pre-packed food donation bags and festive essentials for families. Donations go directly to named partners including FareShare – distributing food to frontline community groups, The Trussell Trust – supporting food banks nationwide, local children’s charities, hospices and hospital wards and community larders and Salvation Army branches.

Tesco’s message is clear: a little extra in your trolley can go a long way.

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Sainsbury’s festive advert brings back the beloved BFG in a whimsical Christmas caper: the story follows a hungry giant who devours a family’s festive food shop, only for the BFG — helped by a real-life Sainsbury’s colleague — to race around town replacing the stolen Christmas dinner. The advert ends on a warm note: the BFG is invited to Christmas lunch.

But behind the storytelling gloss there’s more than just sales messaging. Sainsbury’s is using this campaign also to highlight its long-standing partnership with Comic Relief. Through their 2025 “Nourish the Nation” programme, the retailer is committing to deliver over five million meals to families facing food poverty this Christmas — donating money and facilitating customer food-donations in store.

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But the most powerful Christmas ads this year aren’t from retailers…

Supermarkets are doing valuable work by embedding giving into everyday shopping — but when it comes to storytelling, charities are leading the charge this year. Two standouts rise above the rest:

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Save the Children

This Christmas, Save the Children delivers a festive advert that feels remarkably like a brand-level commercial — but with a sharp, heart-hardening twist. The 2025 campaign, titled The One Delivery That Matters, opens with the familiar sights and sounds of a nostalgic holiday ad: a convoy of glowing red trucks rolling through softly falling snow, Christmas music playing, and that warm seasonal hush of expectation.

However, these aren’t delivering toys or festive meals — the trucks carry urgent aid: food, shelter, warm clothes and the basic essentials children around the world desperately need. The message lands with clarity: this holiday season, what matters isn’t how many parcels show up at your door — but how many children receive the essentials they need to survive and thrive.

The campaign doesn’t hide behind soft sentiment — it calls viewers to act. Through a 45-second film airing in TV and cinema, plus social, OOH, a “tap-to-donate” truck installation and in-store activations, Save the Children repositions itself for 2025 as more than a seasonal appeal; it’s a global movement demanding solidarity, compassion and tangible support for children everywhere.

The tagline — “The one delivery that matters” — isn’t just a marketing line. It’s a reframing of Christmas: from gifts under a tree, to hope for vulnerable children. In this way, Save the Children isn’t riding the festive wave — it’s redefining what “giving at Christmas” should really mean.

Watch the ad here: https://youtu.be/4HOKFE45VFw

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Shelter

Shelter’s 2025 Christmas advert, “Earworm”, is one of the most affecting charity films of the season. The ad follows a young boy singing a familiar tune — but it’s not a festive carol. It’s the “hold music” he hears endlessly while his family waits in the housing support system.

What begins as nostalgia quickly turns into a stark reality check. Shelter reveals the devastating truth: tens of thousands of children will spend this Christmas in temporary accommodation. It’s beautifully crafted, devastatingly honest, and utterly impossible to ignore.

Shelter’s call to action lands hard: Every child deserves a safe place to wake up on Christmas morning.

Watch the ad here: https://youtu.be/UDHzRSCcb7A

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What This Means for Fundraisers

This evolving Christmas advertising landscape offers several lessons for fundraisers and charity leaders:

1. Retailers Are becoming gateways to giving - Supermarkets have footfall, trust and convenience — and they’re using all three to facilitate mass-market generosity. This is a huge opportunity for charities positioned to partner with them.

2. Charity storytelling can rival commercial campaigns - Shelter and Save the Children demonstrate that charities can produce films as compelling as — or more compelling than — the biggest retailers, and in doing so, anchor themselves in national conversation.

3. People want to give — but they need easy routes - Toy banks, food donation bags, jumper days, tap-to-donate walls…Multiple small pathways to giving make mass participation possible.

4. Emotional truth cuts through the festive noise - While retailers deliver sparkle, charities deliver reality — and that contrast is where the deepest donor engagement often lies.

Final Thoughts

Christmas advertising isn’t just a spectacle. It’s a barometer of public feeling — and an enormous national moment of attention.

Retailers are wisely using that attention to support local and national charities, enabling millions of small acts of kindness. But this year, it’s the charities themselves — the likes of Save the Children and Shelter — that are delivering the most impactful message.

At a time of economic pressure, global conflict and rising inequality, these two adverts remind us: The true spirit of Christmas isn’t what we’re buying — it’s what, and whom, we’re supporting.

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