It is Christmas Eve. A woman wanders around a shop to find a present for her sister. It is not going well. Then she takes a tumble through a clothes rack and enters her own private NarniaThe imaginary land of magic people and animals invented by author CS Lewis.. 

She skips back and forth through time, seeing the highs and lows of her life with her sister. When she returns to the shop, she is able to buy the perfect present. 

This is the plot of The Gifting Hour, John Lewis's Christmas shopping advert.

For almost two decades, the department store's Christmas adverts have been the subject of British national conversation.¹ 

The formula was set with 2011's The Long Wait. It starred a young boy counting down the days to Christmas. It ends with a heartwarming twist: he is waiting to give presents, not receive them.

The adverts have since become more daring. 2012 had a snowman journey to find his lost love, 2015 saw a girl befriend the man on the moon, 2021 starred an alien visitor and last year ended with a giant Venus flytrapThe Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) is a carnivorous plant. vomiting out presents.

The adverts are sentimental. They focus on family, friendship and belonging. They rarely feature actual Christmas shopping, the very thing they exist to sell.

The commercialisation of Christmas is controversial. Every year, commentators bemoan that a once-religious festival has instead become focused on buying gluttonous heaps of food and expensive presents.

Yet others note that the Christmas we celebrate now has evolved hand in hand with consumerismSociety's obsession with acquiring consumer goods.. Historian Ruth McClelland-Nugent says: "The popularisation of Christmas in the United States begins with advertising."

It is a difficult time for shops though. John Lewis has lost money three years in a row. A bumper year of Christmas shopping could save the high street - and stop town centres becoming empty wastelands. This might be a true act of giving.

Is Christmas shopping a virtue?

Yes: Most people like giving and receiving gifts. But the presents do not emerge from thin air. All acts of giving stem from buying and selling. We should stop pretending otherwise.

No: A virtuous act is one we choose to do. But society has forced us to shop at Christmas. It has even bred children to be angry and disappointed if they do not receive the expensive gifts they want.

Or... We live under capitalism. Almost everything has been commercialised: from education to medicine to water. Christmas shopping is not a virtue or a vice. It is just part of the world we live in.